Spirits of Ages
by the one that will not be named
Summary: 25 years have passed since Legionmon's defeat. Everyone has moved on with their lives, yet still hope to see their hero again. And they'll need a hero, as Evil never rests and rises up once more, threatening to end all of creation.
1. prologue

It's here! The sequel to Spirits of Destiny! And I still don't own Digimon… But I'm working on that! 'Runs off.'

* * *

Spirits of Ages

Prologue

A mysterious figure was seen standing next to a pile of eggs. The creature's huge figure betrayed that he held great strength. Slowly he reached out to an egg.

He put his hand up to it and…

Rubbed it gently.

It didn't take long for it to hatch and give birth to a Puyomon. "Welcome back to the world little one." GrapLeomon, an ultimate version of Elecmon said. He looked like he belonged in the ring more then here, handling those delicate eggs.

He sighed as he put the newly born digimon down in one of the cradles stationed a bit further. "That pile just won't end."

"You got that right boss." A man with the head of a demon said. "Seriously, I turn my back and it grows bigger."

"Then don't turn you back to it. But you're right apprentice. There's no end to our noble job!" Grapleomon chuckled. He had hired Baromon as an apprentice when he popped out of one of the eggs send there. He was incredibly lucky actually. Not an hour after Elecmon picked up his egg the 'Legionmon-pile' appeared.

"But enough talk, let's get back to work. Our heroes is still under there." Baromon nodded. He couldn't wait to find his friend again. After all, it had been twenty-five years since he last saw him.

* * *

Meanwhile in the real world.

A young boy, wearing a simple black shirt, a pair of jeans and goggles holding back the bush that he called hair, was sneaking around his own house. His target? His moms Digivice.

The boy, otherwise known as Taichi (named after his heroic uncle), was an odd one. He was already twelve, but to this day he still had no Digimon.

It pissed him off.

For some reason he just couldn't find one. The eggs he held always felt 'wrong' in some way. His old man and some even older man had told him that 'he would know it when he chose the right one.'

Or something like that. He wasn't really paying attention. Mischief evident in his green eyes as he thought of how to prank his aunt.

But anyway, he was currently sneaking into his parents room. He didn't have to worry about them actually. One was at a convention and the other was currently visiting a friend in the hospital.

He saw his target. There on the nightstand.

'_The music from 'Indiana Jones: Raiders of the lost arc' started playing, you know that part with the gold icon)_

He crept closer and closer, checking around for possible 'booby traps' or guardians.

Taichi started to sweat as he reached the nightstand. He looked around the room one more time and grabbed the pink and white device.

With a huge grin on his face he walked back towards the door.

"What are you doing?" A voice asked, causing Taichi to freeze up. "Uh nothing?" He said with a questioning tone.

A catlike creature crawled out from under the bed and looked at him. "You're stealing your mom's digivice again, aren't you?"

Taichi nodded and began edging towards the door.

Gatomon sighed and jumped towards him.

Taichi just ran. Through the door and into the hallway.

He ran as quickly as his legs could carry him, which was rather fast considering that he had been practicing the noble sport of soccer for quite some time.

Gatomon was in hot pursuit. She gained on Taichi as he made it to the stairs. Unfortunate for her, her claws got stuck in the rug, causing her to flip over and start rolling down the stairs.

Taichi descended the stairs as quickly as he could to avoid the small hairy ball rolling down after him. Once down the stairs he ran to his room. The computer was already up and running.

Gatomon, on the other hand, crashed into the wall. She was a bit disoriented but recovered quickly from her boulder impersonation and started the chase again.

She found him in his room, holding the digivice towards the screen. Gatomon jumped towards him just as he was sucked into the screen. Unfortunate for her she was just a bit to late and crashed into the computer screen.

"I'm getting to old for this." She sighed as she saw the bane of her existence waving at her from the other side of the gate.

"Bye aunt Gato!" He said as he waved at her before running off to the primary village.

"How am I going to explain this to Kari? Again?." She said to herself as the huge hair of her nephew disappeared completely out of sight.

* * *

Well? What do you think? We'll see the other characters in later chapters and see what they made of their lives.

And remember that there are going to be quite some OC's in here. Mostly the children of the digidestined.

R&R people!

By the way, I also don't own Indiana Jones ;)


	2. Doctor, doctor

Still don't own digimon but I do own my OC's, though they're not worth much.

* * *

Spirits of Ages

Chapter 1

Taichi happily pocketed the digivice. He knew he was in trouble. Big time. But he didn't really care.

He had a mission.

To finally bring home a digimon!

He didn't know why but he had a good feeling about today.

* * *

At the primary village.

"No end to the torture." Baromon said to himself as he picked up another egg. The fifteenth that afternoon.

Some rubbing later and 'poof'. A new digimon was born.

"Welcome back kiddo." He said, not really paying attention to what kind of digimon it was. He quickly put it down in a cradle and went back.

"Yo Baromon!" A voice was heard, one that Baromon immediately recognised.

"Hey Taichi, what's up?" He said, a smile forming on his demonic mask.

"Not much actually, still looking for a digimon." He answered. Baromon could have known. That was practically the only reason he ever came here.

"Does your mom know you're here?" He asked, though he knew the answer.

"Eh… No?" He answered, holding his hand behind his head.

Baromon sighed.

"Well then, let's just start looking again, shall we?" The demon man said as he pointed at the huge pile of eggs.

"I'd help you but GrapLeomon is currently away on an errant, so I'm stuck looking over the wee ones." Baromon said before turning back to said wee digimon.

Taichi dug through the pile. None of the eggs he touched felt right. But he was stubborn, even more so then his uncle and refused to give up.

Half an hour later

"Eureka!" He held up an egg. The moment he did so he felt a warm feeling in his chest, signalling that he had chosen the right egg. Or that the egg chose him.

Either way a light formed in his hand, which then shifted into a digivice. A red one with black grips.

"Finally!" He yelled out.

Baromon came to check up on the sound coming from the other side of the pile.

"So you finally found one, did you?"

"Yes, finally!" He showed it to Baromon, who took it to examine it. "Well, what do you think is in there?"

"Eh…" Baromon was stumped. He had never seen such an egg before. "No clue. You'll just have to wait till it hatches."

"Damn, how long will that take?" Taichi asked.

"Well it depends. Some eggs only need a good rub before hatching, others take weeks for some reason." Baromon thought for a second. "I do know that the so called 'chosen' digimon, you know the partner digimon, take a week or two to hatch once they're back with their partner."

"Damn." Taichi said again.

"Sorry kid, you'll just have to wait." He laughed. And shouldn't you be getting home now? Milady Kari must be worried."

"Nah, she's not even home. She's off visiting Mimi in the hospital." He said turning around and facing the exit to the village. "But aunt Gato was home, so I'm getting punished anyway!"

Baromon sweatdropped. "Well say 'hi' to Milady Kari from me, okay?" Taichi nodded, still not used to the fact that Baromon insisted on calling his mom 'Milady'

"Later!" He ran off, only to return a minute or two later, to take his egg back from Baromon and running of again.

'Just like his uncle.' Baromon thought before returning to his job.

Meanwhile young Taichi arrived at the TV-set. Holding the egg in one arm and lifting his new digivice up to the screen with the other he disappeared in a flash of light.

* * *

Taichi landed face first on the floor with the egg on his back. "Ouch." He muttered.

The egg rolled off of him and onto the floor and towards the open door, where someone picked it up.

"Where have you been young man?" The voice belonging to that person asked. "Busted!" Was heard from a certain cat-like creature that passed by.

"Eh nowhere?" Taichi tried, knowing that his mother would never fall for it. Kari, who was all grown up now, sighed. "You know that you 're not supposed to go to the Digital World alone. It's dangerous there."

"Come on mom, What's the worst that could happen there?" Taichi asked, allowing a huge grin to form on his face.

Kari sighed again. "Didn't you read your fathers book?"

"I'm reading it! I swear!" That was no lie actually. He was reading the book that his father wrote but only made it past the first chapter, the one where they all fall of the cliff.

"Then you know what kind of bad things can happen there." Kari said in her 'all-knowing' style of voice.

"Yeah." He admitted. Though she should know that he wasn't really planning on going near a cliff anytime soon. "So how was your friend?" He asked, partly out of concern but mostly hoping to distract her long enough to escape punishment.

"Not good, the doctors said that she's very weak." Kari looked a bit down. "But they are releasing her soon, as long as she promises to take it easy and not overexert herself. If she can do that she'll recover nicely."

"That's good to hear." Taichi admitted.

"And now about your punishment."

'Crap.' He thought. And it was evident on his face as well.

"What, you weren't thinking that you'd get away without punishment, were you?" Kari allowed an evil smile to grace her face, just for a second.

Taichi noticed and knew that he was screwed.

"Let's see…" Kari thought. "You're grounded."

"What? For how long?" Taichi wailed.

"Let's see…" She looked at the egg she was still holding. "Until this one here hatches." With that she handed the egg back to her son.

"What? But Baromon said that takes two weeks!" Taichi put the egg down and crashed onto his bed, burying his head into his pillow.

"I only punish you because I care." Kari said before going back to the living room. "Oh and congratulations on finding a digimon." She said as she walked through the hallway.

Taichi sighed. But at least now he had the time to look over the egg. Whatever it was that lived in there.

In the egg.

'Well this sucks.'

Tai, the original, was still stuck in the egg. And from what he had just heard he was picked up by some punk.

He was not looking forward to hatching. And especially not to becoming some strangers pet.

Though he had to admit that there was something odd about the punk. And the other voice he heard. She sounded familiar, though he just could place it.

He had absolutely no idea how long it was since he and BlackAgumon fought Legionmon. To him it felt like he had been asleep all this time.

Heck, he was still half asleep. Not much to do in the egg after all. All he could do for now was wait and hope that there wasn't some new evil that he'd have to fight.

But we all know better right?

Back outside the egg.

Taichi walked into the living room, where he threw his mom's digivice back to her. Kari caught it midair.

"Thank dear." Taichi just grumbled something about Baromon saying 'hi' before heading back to his room.

* * *

Now let's go somewhere else, to see what happened to the rest of the digidestined.

"So doctor Kiddo, why is it that you can't keep up your number of patients?" A rather irritated Chief Hospital Administrator said to the doctor in front of her.

A man that looked older then he should. Blue hair with a few streaks of grey in them. Wearing the standard doctor's coat with black jeans and a grey shirt underneath. He leaned on a cane to prevent him from putting to much pressure on his left leg.

He smirked.

"There's no problem. I CAN keep up with them. I just choose not to." Dr Kido said with a rather nonchalant tone of voice. "It's just the same every time. Every day I walk into that waiting room and am able to diagnose more then half of them with the common flu."

"And what if they don't have the 'common' flu?" A very annoyed redhead said.

"You know what? You're right! I'll go home right now and think about that."

Joe Kido turned around and headed towards the door, using his crutch as a support for his sore leg.

"Kido! Wait!" Joe turned around again. "This might seem like a strange question but are you by any chance related to a Gregory House?"(1)

Joe smirked at that. "What about uncle Greg?" With that he turned around and limped out.

She laid her head down on her desk. "I try to escape one doctor House by leaving America. Then I come here and meet a new one."

Joe was annoyed. He came here wanting to help the people. Heck he still wants to. But people just came without reason. Staring down the throat of dozens of people a day, just to diagnose them with a simple cold or flu pissed him off.

Hell, it was enough to piss anyone off.

Not to mention the pain in his leg. That just wouldn't stop bugging him either.

He sighed and limped over to the patients chambers. He still had one more person to see here before heading home.

"Hey princess." Joe smiled as he entered a certain room. A young girl, about six years old, ran up to him. "Daddy!" Joe picked her up, allowing his cane to rest against the doorpost.

"She wasn't bothering you today, right?" He asked the patient who's room he entered.

"Not at all _doctor_ Kido." Mimi answered, though by a wink of her eye and her tone you knew that she wasn't to serious about the 'doctor' part.

"Come on Mimi, don't call me that. It makes me feel old." Joe answered, putting Hinata (what? I'm a Naruto fan) down again.

"You should feel old Joe, have you looked in the mirror lately?" Mimi answered. "I think I see a bald spot too." Mimi pointed at his hair.

"Not funny Mimi." Joe answered, though he couldn't help but feel a bit embarrassed at her concern for him. Normally it's the other way around, him being the doctor and all.

"But as I was saying, thank you for looking after her." Joe said as he looked down at his daughter. The same blue hair he had, a pair of glasses and the dark blue eyes of her mother.

Mimi waved her hand. "Don't mention it. I'm just glad to have some company." She held a smile on her face, by which you could see that time had indeed passed. Small wrinkles could be seen, but only if you looked close enough. And even then Mimi would deny they were there. Usually by hitting you in the head, just to make sure.

"By the way, doctor Kenzou said that you're getting out in a few days." Joe said, having heard the news just an hour ago.

"I know." Mimi said. "Finally getting out of here and out of these ridiculous outfits." She pointed at the hospital gown. "And into something more fashionable."

Joe allowed a smile to form on his face. After all she had gone through she was still the same Mimi he knew.

"I'd better get going. Else Cuddy is going to force me to work." Joe said. "Can you look after her again tomorrow?" Mimi nodded as Joe thanked her before taking off, with Hinata in his wake.

"How do you do it?" Someone asked. Lisa Cuddy, chief hospital administrator, walked in, after she made sure that Joe was out of range. .

"Do what?" Mimi asked, sitting up.

"That. Having a normal conversation with him, you know without the sarcasm or the cheesy jokes." Lisa couldn't help but admit that she was a bit jealous of that.

"Oh that. Me and Joe go way back." Mimi answered. "You know the 'Digimon adventure' books?"

Lisa nodded. " Me, Joe and the whole team played the main part in the first arc. That's from where we know each other." Most people already knew about the digital world, so Mimi was free to speak about it as she wanted.

"I understand that. But I just don't get it. When he talks to you he seems almost like a real human being." Lisa scoffed.

"Well he has changed a lot since his accident." Mimi admitted. "You know that he was… I mean is married?" Lisa shook her head. "I barely know anything about him."

'Joe's going to kill me for this.' Mimi thought. "He probably didn't tell you about the accident either."

"What accident?" Lisa's curiosity peaked.

"Sorry." Mimi shook her head. "That's not for me to tell. I already told you to much. Ask him about it, okay?"

"I'll do that." With that said Lisa left the room. 'Damn, almost… probably has something to with his leg though' She thought as she returned to her office to lock it up for the night.

* * *

Meanwhile at Joe's house.

"Oh thank God Joe! You're back!" Gomamon clung to his good leg. "Save me from her!"

Joe sighed. At that same moment a Bukamon came flying in, latching onto Hinata. "I thought you'd never come back! Uncle Gomamon is so boring."

"Hey!" Gomamon replied.

"You know it's true uncle Goma." Hinata said. "You're getting old and boring!" She then decided to run like hell, else face the wrath of uncle Goma.

"Little brat." Gomamon muttered. "I'm not old or boring, right Joe?"

"I'm not falling for that one again." Joe answered. "Last time I answered that question to someone I got hit by an apple." He still had the mark on his forehead, just a bit above his left eye.

Gomamon was getting old, no matter how much he denied it. The red hair on his head was starting to grow lighter, his fur coat greyer. But he'd be damned before he'd admit it.

"Whatever." Gomamon said before jumping off of Joe's leg. "Let's just go and see what's on TV tonight."

Joe chuckled and followed the seal into the living room.

* * *

What do you think? And about Mimi being sick, well. Let's just say I'll need it later.

**Author notes**

(1) Couldn't help myself, sue me. Or no wait don't. I also don't own House MD. I just used two characters from the show as a small guideline (cause I don't think I can make Joe actually seem like Greg, but I can try)

**Reviews**

Martiny the one and only still: woot first one! Only 365 reviews to go to get as much as the first one ;)

Depthmon: off course, 25 years have passed. And he'll cause a lot of mischief in this fic

Xoroth: at least you already know where he is, but it may take a while before he himself shows up.

Lord Pata: you're right about that. And don't worry, I'm a strong supporter of the TKxKari pairing.

Minwolf: damnit! Why does everyone figure out my awesome plot thingys so soon? I do plan to do that but as said before he won't show up just yet. Glad you enjoyed that scene, I enjoyed writing it.

Super Garurumon: glad you like it. And to help everyone: I'm putting the original Tai as just Tai and his nephew as Taichi always, okay?

Anime25: Nah, that's no fun though he will get a happy ending, if that's what you're worried about.. But you're right about one thing and wrong about another 'hint-hint' (try figuring that one out) oh, and Agumon will show up sooner or later too, haven't decided yet.

Coppa-cola: sorry but yes. Hope you don't mind to much?

By the way: glad to see all my loyal reviewers again!

That's it people! R&R!


	3. Fullmoon

I still don't own digimon. And I don't like this chapter, feels to much like filler to me. Oh well...

* * *

Spirits of Ages

Chapter 2

Taichi was bored. Why, you ask? Because his damn digi-egg hasn't hatched yet.

He had no idea how long it had been since he got it, nor did he know how long it would take for it to hatch.

"This sucks." Taichi said. Out of sheer boredom he started poking his egg. When he got bored of that he decided to pick up his digivice and see what time it was.

"Let's see…" Taichi started. "I got the egg around four in the afternoon… and now it's eight in the evening…same day."

He groaned and dropped his head on his pillow.

"Can life get anymore boring?" Taichi asked. At the time he asked that he wasn't really thinking about the fact that school was supposed to start in a few days.

So yes, life was on a steady course of getting even boringer, which isn't even a word. (It just proofs how terrible it is!)

He was supposed to start high school this year and he wasn't really looking forward to it. But at least he'd see his friends again.

Heero, the quiet, yet lovable nerd and Joni the tomboy. It took him half a year to figure that she was a girl, with the way she acted. She once beat up the class bully for tripping Heero. Serious, the guy could only eat soup for two weeks.

According to his mother his uncle had the same experience with his best friend. Actually it took him a full year to figure it out.

He didn't know much about his uncle actually, just the stories that his mom and dad told him. He'd discover more about him if he just picked up his father's book.

But he didn't like reading. If it wasn't round or kickable, then he wasn't interested in it. Well, books _are _kickable, but they don't fly very far.

And he'd get in trouble if mom found out he'd kick them. Mostly because they landed on Patamon.

He sighed and started poking his egg again. There hadn't happened anything interesting since his dad left for his convention.

He and Patamon should be getting back soon.

"Aaaaaaaaagghhh!"

'There we go.' He thought as Patamon came racing past his open door. He was being chased by Gatomon, who was wielding a razorblade, you know one of those old ones.

Taichi poked his egg one more time and stood up.

Meanwhile inside the egg.

"**Stop poking me!"**

Back outside.

He was right, his father was home again and currently cuddling his wife.

"Hey!!" Taichi yelled out. "Do that somewhere else!"

"Oh grow up runt." TK said. It may have been an insult but to TK it was like a pet name.

"Stop calling me that." Taichi replied. "I'm just as tall as you were at my age." Taichi scoffed.

"Actually, you're three centimetres shorter." His mother said.

"Mom!" Taichi was pissed. He hated it when people commented on his height. So what if he was three cm shorter then his dad at the same age?

"Anyway…" TK said, sitting down on the couch normally. "The convention was awesome but…"

At that point Taichi realised that his father was still wearing the same awful yellow shirt he wore the day he left for Tokyo.

"They stole your clothes again, didn't they?" Taichi smirked.

"Oh yeah." TK admitted. "Son, never ever do something to get famous. Your wardrobe won't survive it."

Taichi smirked. His dad often had these run-ins with rabid fans. Luckily they never followed him to their house.

"Now, where was I?" TK mused. "O yeah. They going to make a TV show out of my books!" TK smiled as he said that.

"That's great!" Kari exclaimed. "When are they starting to film?"

"Somewhere next month." The writer answered.

"A TV show? Didn't they already do that?" Taichi asked. "TK looked at him with a weird look. "No, off course not." His eyes focused on the reader for a second but quickly turned back to his son.

"By the way, I brought you a sou…" Right at this moment two shapes burst through the door. One of them screaming like there's no tomorrow and another wielding a knife.

"That's something I've been meaning to ask. What the hell?" He pointed at the high speed chase going on in their house.

"Patamon's beard grew back." TK laughed.

"Oh." That explained a lot. You see, Patamon in his 'old' age grew a beard. Not just any beard. No, it was a goatee.

He didn't look bad with it actually but Gatomon hated it and tries to cut it off every time it grows back, which led to incredibly humorous chases. For them at least.

Then a cutting sound was heard from the kitchen and a scream.

"Got it!" Gatomon yelled from the kitchen, causing the three humans to sweat drop.

* * *

Meanwhile, somewhere else in the same country AND at 249,209,300 km from Earth.

"Yamato, how are things out there?" A certain red head asked, through use of a microphone. Time had worked its magic on him as well, turning him from a short nerd to a full grown nerd, who, incidentally, was still rather short.

His wardrobe mostly consisted of grey and blue. Rather sober colours but he pulled it off.

The speakers cracked and he received his answer.

"You know you're not supposed to call me that _Koushiro_." Yamato, more commonly known as Matt, singer, songwriter and part-time astronaut, said.

"I know that." Koushiro, Izzy to the friends, responded. "But we're at the base, so we have to act professional."

"Good luck with that." Another voice said, this one coming from Gabumon.

Izzy sweatdropped, especially when he noticed that every member of the crew was staring at him.

The room they were in was rather large, with all the people they needed to keep the Star Explorer 063 on course. Row after row of computers stood there, with him and two co-workers on the first row. The he screen was currently shut off, since there wasn't any need for it.

This was just a routine mission. To deliver energy cells to the lunar base. Piece of cake, not even Matt could screw this up.

* * *

"Houston, we have a problem."

"We're not Houston Matt. We're Tanegashima."

"Whatever. But serious, we have a problem." Matt's voice was heard again. It had been an hour since the last transmission. "What is it Matt?"

"We, kind of, just landed."

Izzy stared at the speaker, hoping that he misheard. "Repeat that."

"I said: we landed."

"Impossible. We would have gotten a signal if you got even near the moon." Izzy replied, awaiting Matt's answer.

"That's the problem. We kind of didn't land on the moon."

Izzy, along with every other employee in the room sweat dropped.

"What do you mean?" Izzy asked.

"It may be easier if I just showed you." Matt answered.

A few minutes after that Izzy's computer signalled incoming images.

He opened the link and switched on the huge screen.

"I think we're a bit off track." Matt waved at the camera.

Matt, Gabumon and that other guy were currently standing on the surface of a planet. A red planet.

"You have got to be kidding me." Izzy said. Matt just waved at him again, apparently amused by the situation.

"This is the last time I send a rock star into space." Izzy sighed. "Hey I heard that."

* * *

An hour or two and a few calls later, Izzy was driving home again. Apparently some idiot had entered the wrong chart and created a faulty course, which the space ship followed.

Matt and the crew were fine but all of their fuel was used up. So for the moment they had no way of getting home plus their food supply was also rather small.

Luckily for them the JAXA (Japanese space program) had immediately send off a new, unmanned ship to Mars, using the previously mentioned idiot's route. It was packed with supplies and enough fuel to bring them home.

In the meanwhile they had a change of orders: they were now supposed to take samples of the soil and scout for any intelligent life. Actually Tentomon had made that one up. He fiercely believed that Mars held aliens.

He had called TK and Sora about what had happened. TK because Matt was his brother and Sora because they were married. He had hoped not to wake Sora up but he also forgot about the time difference in America.

Sora had yelled at him for a while, calmed down a bit and yelled some more. After that they had a conversation like they used to, when they were still a team.

He sighed as he parked his dark blue car in front of his apartment. He missed those days. Working with JAXA was interesting and it paid well. But life just wasn't the same without a few monsters that threatened to destroy the world.

* * *

Meanwhile back with Taichi and his family.

Taichi was currently lying in his bed. He'd rather not be but as usual his mom forced him.

Lazily he lifted up a remote from his nightstand and aimed it at the stereo, which sprung alive with the newest live album of Iron Maiden: Getting old.

He took one last look at his egg and glared at it. Not actually at the egg but more at what the egg was in.

_Flashback_

"_As I was saying, before Gatomon tried to kill my partner: I brought you a souvenir." TK tossed a package at his son, who caught it easily._

_Taichi eagerly opened it._

"_Oh hell no."_

"_Come on, put it on."_

_Taichi lifted a bucket hat out of the package, the same one TK always wore so many years ago._

"_I'll be dead and buried before I wear this." He eyed it wearily. "Twice." Taichi continued, keeping the hat at arm's distance._

"_It's not that bad, I used to wear one as well." TK grinned._

"_Yes, and how popular were you back then dad?" Taichi questioned._

"_He's got you there love." Kari smiled._

"_Hey, I was popular back then. I think." TK held his hand to his chin in thought._

_End flashback_

In the end Taichi was forced to wear it once, got a picture taken by aunt Gato, which she threatened to use as Christmas card and now the bucket hat gained a new purpose in life as a nest for his digital egg.

And another interesting thing had happened. Apparently his uncle Matt (the only uncle by blood ) was currently on Mars. He smiled as he thought of that. Izzy had called his father about it.

_Flashback_

"_What? You sure about that? Okay then, bye." TK hung up._

_He sat there for a second, before a goofy smile formed on his face. "Guess what?"_

"_What?" Taichi asked._

"_Your uncle Matt was supposed to be sent to the moon, right?" TK asked, barely able to contain his laughter._

"_Yeah, he wouldn't stop boasting about it." Taichi remembered that very well actually, how his uncle and Gabumon talked about it. Though Gabumon talked more about the painful training. And examinations._

"_Well, let's just say that his spaceship got a bit off course." TK laughed._

"_Off course?" Kari asked, eying the laughing idiot that was her husband._

"_As in: he's on Mars."_

_Kari and Gatomon sweatdropped while Taichi's jaw fell to the floor._

"_You can't be serious." Gatomon stated._

_End flashback_

With the thought that his uncle was stuck on some godforsaken planet, that for some reason made him smile, Taichi fell asleep.

* * *

I hate this chapter. It forced me to rewrite it a lot of times. By the way, I know that JAXA could NEVER screw a mission up so badly but it happened in the anime ;)

And I apologise for the crappyness of this chapter

Reviews

Martiny the one and only still: yeah that'll take some work to figure out but don't worry about it . And about the 25 years later thing. I know it's a bit odd but hey, I needed a storyline for the sequel. I then saw the last episode of the second season again and decided to use it.

Super garurumon: He's going to be pissed al right :)

Lord Pata: he has a beard. A goatee!! I don't know why but when I red your review I got a vision of Patamon with a beard. Who was being chased by Gatomon with a razor blade. So I wrote it down. and yes Patamon was with him.

Coppa-Cola: 1) I know 2) working on that. 3) nope.

Firehedgehog: He'll show up sooner or later

Depthmon: I know, that's why it's so funny

Graypheonix: yeah, I don't plan on putting much hospital sequences in it though, mostly because my severely limited knowledge on medication but I'll try. And don't worry about Tai. Things wil work out for him and Mimi, near the end.

CherrygirlUK: indeed, can't wait to write that chapter

markrock18: could be a possibility, I'll think about it.

Beth: Sorry, kind of forgot to mention it 'Runs away from Beth's fury' and sorry it took so long for a new chapter.

Xoroth: not much of an impact actually on the story but more on Joe himself.

Minwolf: You're right about that, I'm terrible with environments or likewise. I'll try to work on it and thanks for pointing that out.

Rose: Yeah I know it's absurdly long but hey, it was needed for the story to work ;)

anime25: yes, I'm going to do that. It'll be hilarious.

Woot 16 reviews on one chapter!

R&R and Later people!


	4. School's out

Ronald doesn't own Digimon. Aaah!

* * *

Spirits of Ages

Chapter 3

Two days had gone by so fast. Matt was still stuck on Mars, looking for aliens. Joe still did his best not to take care of his 'patients' which, in his opinion, weren't sick in the first place… He did, however, fix someone with some new unnamed disease. And he whacked two apprentices with his cane…

Sora was pissed off that her hubby was on Mars, Mimi was still in the hospital but was to be released tomorrow, because they couldn't do anything for her anymore. The only thing that would help at this point was resting up and relaxing.

And Izzy was currently trying to figure out how much fuel his stranded team needed to get back home…

But all of that didn't interest Taichi. It's hard to be interested in anything when you're pissed off.

Why was he pissed off you ask?

Today was the first of September.

A day hated by student and teacher alike. But more by Taichi.

And if that wasn't all he had to wear the dreaded SCHOOL UNIFORM!!

Taichi was currently wearing a 'fashionable' pair of green pants, matching green jacket and white shirt underneath it.

"This sucks!" He yelled loud enough for the entire world to hear.

"Come on, son. It's not that bad." TK said, trying his best not to laugh at his son. To bad for him they changed the dress code three years ago.

When he was young they weren't forced to wear the uniform. Just those of the higher grades had to wear them. TK still remembered how bad he looked in one of them.

"You dare call this not bad?" Taichi pointed an accusing finger at his father. "This, my dear father, is a fashion disaster!"

"This coming from the boy who wear black at all occasions." His mom decided to add her two cents as well.

"That's because black _works _on all occasions. Green only works on Saint Patrick's day!" Taichi threw his arms towards the air in frustration.

"Calm down." TK said. "And shouldn't you get ready?" Taichi looked at the clock on the wall. "Crap!"

He rushed to his room.

"Wow, haven't seen him move like that since last year." Kari said. "Well, a bit of clock tampering always helps." TK said, showing his watch to her, revealing that Taichi wasn't late at all.

If anything he'd be the first there.

"You're mean, you know that?" Kari stated. "Would you love if I wasn't?"

* * *

Meanwhile Taichi was searching through his pile for anything he would need today

"Let's see, pencils… check. Paper… check." He stuffed said utensils in his school bag.

"First aid kit…" He had absolutely no idea how that ended up in his pile of junk, eh I mean valuables. He opened it and noticed it was also half empty, probably because Patamon needed the contents after his unfortunate incident with the sharp end of a razor.

Taichi closed it again. "Nah, let's take it anyway. Could have come in handy, if today's anything like last year." Taichi closed his schoolbag but quickly reopened it, realising he forgot something.

He looked around for said something but was unable to locate it. "Where the hell did it go?"

"Looking for this?" His aunt Gato appeared in the doorway, holding his black digi-egg. "Yes, that's it!" Taichi tried to lunge at her and take it back. Gatomon just jumped back and easily evaded him.

"You're not thinking that I'll let you take this to school with you, are you?" Gatomon narrowed her eyes. "Why not?" Taichi shot back. "Mom and dad took you and Patamon with them all the time."

"There's your problem. DigiMON and digi-EGGS are not entirely the same." Gatomon said, quickly disappearing again, taking the egg with her.

"Aunt Gato! Get back here!" Taichi yelled at her before commencing the chase.

* * *

Five minutes later.

Gatomon had easily evaded her favourite nephew and saved her 'baby' from his partner. Digimon couldn't have babies together, so she saw the egg as her own, which made sense in some way, given the fact that Kari was like a sister to her. Whatever was contained in the egg would end up like a brother to Taichi.

Meanwhile inside the egg, the original Tai got the feeling that something was terribly wrong.

"Don't worry." He heard someone whisper softly. "Mama's going to take good care of you."

He hated it when he was right.

* * *

Meanwhile the new Taichi was hurrying towards his school. To bad for him it wasn't very far away. He preferred his old school, which was FAR away from his house.

After crossing six streets, walking past the comic book store, trying his best not to go in and nearly knocked down an old lady he arrived at his school.

Sitting there on a bench with a book in hand was a boy. He was a bit chubby, rather tall for his age and wore glasses. His black hair was tied into a short ponytail.

"Hey Heero!" Taichi yelled. He had spotted his friend immediately. Normally you couldn't do so, because of all the green the students wore. The only reason he did so was because Heero was almost the only student on the court yard.

"Taichi? What are you doing here so early?" Heero, wearing the same outfit as Taichi, asked.

"Early? What do you mean? I thought I was going to be late today." He looked at his own watch, which told him that he was nearly half an hour early. "I'm going to kill my father." He stated.

Heero shook his head. He was used to stuff like this. Taichi's dad had a habit of pulling pranks on his son, but that was only because Taichi was a major prankster as well.

Heck, the first time the two of them met was when he pulled a prank.

_Flashback_

_Young Heero sat on a bench, innocently reading a book in the park. His parents were talking to some people they knew and he was content with waiting for them. Just when he turned the page he heard a small explosion and angry quacking. Moments later a younger version of Taichi came running towards him._

"_RUN!" He ran past him. Heero adjusted his glasses to see what was happening. A huge group of angry ducks were chasing the hairball that just passed him._

_The ducks noticed that their target was gone and focused on another one. Him._

"_Oh dear." He stood up and ran like hell in the same direction as the boy._

_The ducks weren't thinking about giving up yet and started to gain on him. He thought he was done for when he ran past some trees. Suddenly a hand reached down._

_Heero quickly took it and Taichi pulled him up to safety._

"_Okay, I think we're safe. Ducks can't climb trees, right?"_

_End flashback. _

To this day he still had no idea where Taichi got that cherry bomb, nor did he know where he got the idea to drop it into the pond.

Heero shook his head again. The two of them were complete opposites, yet they were the best friends there were, along with Joni. But she'd probably show up much later.

"So, did anything interesting happen during the holidays?" Heero asked, trying to steer away from the homicidal ideas Taichi held for the moment.

"Oh nothing, except…THIS!" Taichi pulled his digivice from his belt and held it towards Heero. "With this digivice I will…" At that time Taichi realised that he had no idea what he was going to do with it. Heck he didn't even know what it could do.

Heero ignored the half sentence that Taichi uttered. "So you finally got a digimon." Heero was a bit jealous. But maybe he could get one as well now that Taichi had a digivice.

"Yup!"

"So, does he breathe fire? Ice? Acid?" Heero asked, wanting to know more and more about Taichi's digimon. After all, the digital world was now commonly known, but hardly anyone had a partner digimon.

"Eh, about that… he hasn't hatched yet." Heero sweatdropped. "I don't even know if it's a 'he' for certain."

"Idiot." Heero muttered and returned to his reading.

* * *

Twenty minutes later…

Taichi was getting worried about his other friend. Well not worried. He'd never admit that. A bit concerned perhaps, but worried never. But the fact remained that the girl still hadn't showed up.

Five minutes more and she would be to late for class.

"Looking for me idiots?" A voice was heard. Taichi looked up… And saw something that would scar him for the rest of his natural life.

Joni: dark purple hair, thin face and clear blue eyes. She was the self-proclaimed 'world's biggest tomboy'

And right now she was wearing a skirt

Both Taichi's and Heero's jaws fell to the floor.

In all the time they knew the girl they had never, ever seen her in a skirt. Taichi remembered a time where she blew up at her mother for the mere suggestion.

"How…how did that happen?!" Heero finally managed to say.

"Mom forced to wear this damn thing." She pointed at the green skirt. "It pisses me off." (She wears the same outfit as Sora wore back when she was in high school)

"Wow." Taichi uttered. 'She looks stunning in that outfit. Wait? Where did that come from.' Taichi shook his head to get rid of those thoughts.

"Hey stop staring!" Joni yelled out and smacked him besides the head, sending him flying off the bench.

"I wasn't staring, I was just thinking really hard." He defended himself. "Sure you were nitwit." Joni cracked her fist. Taichi should know by now not to get her angry. She may be a girl but she packs quite a punch and cursed like there's no tomorrow. (I modelled her a bit after Tayuya from Naruto, but she won't be that bad.)

'_Trriinnggg'_

"I hate that sound." Taichi muttered, still rubbing his sore head as he got back up.

"We all do." Joni said while glaring at Heero in case he wished to disagree with her.

The first two hours were okay. Just simple math and barely any of it too.

Taichi sighed. Two more hours to go.

The third hour ruled to be honest. Chemistry. The only thing the teacher did in that hour was blow stuff up.

Taichi made a mental note of to remember the elements she used to create those explosions, especially the one that singed her hair.

* * *

And then came the dreaded fourth hour. History!

You know, when in school the time goes veeery slow? Especially the last lesson. This was no exception. Taichi saw the hands of the clock move slower and slower as the minutes passed. At one moment he could have sworn they stopped and moved the other way.

He sighed and sat up again. He needed to pay attention because teachers always had the nasty habit of picking him to answer questions.

Luckily for him this one didn't. But she did eye him suspiciously.

Miss Shibayama, as that was her name, was an old woman. Really old. Her hair was obviously coloured into a brown colour. You could easily see the few grey hairs between the brown.

But she was nice. At least she wasn't yelling at anyone…yet.

* * *

Class ended after a century or two.

Taichi loved that sound of sweet sweet freedom!. He got up and picked up his schoolbag again. He stuffed his pencil back in and put it on his back.

He and Joni already walked out the door and through the hallway. Heero always took longer to get ready and they didn't feel like waiting inside the classroom.

A minute later Heero walked out of the room and was about to make his way towards them when he was stopped by two idiots.

Taichi narrowed his eyes. He knew those two idiots.

Last year they were in the same school. They always picked on him and Heero. They were the textbook example of brawn instead of brains. He wondered how they even made it to this school.

He was snapped out of his thoughts as neantherthaler nr1, also known as Yarou, decided to grab Heero and push him against the wall.

He and Joni obviously decided to help their friend. They heard parts of a conversation as they went.

"What did you call me nerd?" The previously mentioned cave man hissed. "I'd say it again but then you might strain your brain trying to understand it." Heero responded.

"Okay that's it! You're going down fatty!"

"Oh dear." Taichi said. The two of them weren't even halfway there when he heard that. "They're dead." Joni said. Taichi just nodded and picked up the pace.

"What did you call me?" Heero said, nearly whispered.

"He called you fat, fatty." The other idiot said.

Heero's eye twitched. "I AM NOT FAT!!" With that said Heero broke free from the first bully's grip and knocked him down in the process.

The other bully stepped back in fear. He had never thought that he'd dare to retaliate. So he did the only thing he could think off. "Aaah!" With a rather pathetic warcry he jumped onto Heero's back, trying to take him down. Yarou got up and attempted something likewise.

The three of them were quickly involved in a pile of fists.

Joni and Taichi arrived at the scene right then. "You thinking what I'm thinking?" Joni asked as she looked at Taichi, who just nodded.

"Dogpile!" The two students jumped on the mass of flying fists.

* * *

Two minutes later the five of them were sitting inside another classroom, being berated by miss Shibayama.

"You idiots! Starting a fight on your first day here!" She rambled on about responsibility and the lack there of or something… Taichi wasn't really paying attention, so he just focused on the huge mould she had on her forehead.

"Do I make myself clear?" Taichi shot back to reality. "Yes ma'am." The five of them said. "You're lucky I didn't send you to the principle." She muttered, and motioned them to go away.

"Not you." Taichi froze up. "We've got some things to discuss boy."

As she said that Taichi got two looks of pity and two satisfied smirks from dumb and dumber.

"What can I do for you ma'am?" Taichi asked as innocent as possible. 'What the hell? I haven't done anything wrong…yet!"

"Is your mothers last name Yagami?" She asked, all seriousness suddenly gone. Taichi was a bit surprised but answered in the positive.

"I thought so. I remember her, terrific student, straight A's and not a bad bone in her body." She said with a smile on her face.

"Her brother on the other hand…"

"He was a scoundrel like I had never seen before. Sleeping on class, blowing up the tests (which he failed), and much more." She sighed. "He passed away before his time. He could have gone far." She smiled at the memories she had off the young man. Though most of them contained him doing something stupid.

But he was a good student, heck he'd probably be a politician or something by now if it weren't for his accident.

As she stared of in the distance Taichi processed what she had said. He didn't know much about his uncle, just that he saved the world a few times and that he died doing so. He didn't know any details about that either.

"You look just like him, you know that? You have the same hairstyle, yours is just a bit paler of colour though." She smiled.

"Anyway, say 'hi' to your mother from me, okay? Let's see if she still remembers me." Taichi nodded and made his way out of the school as fast as he could.

* * *

Outside the school his two loyal companions awaited.

"What did she do to you?" Heero asked with a concerned tone, all the while rubbing his slightly bruised cheek.

"Nothing, she just told me about my uncle, apparently he was a lot like me." Taichi said. 'But I'm worse!' He added in his mind.

He now had a reputation to live up to. He laughed evilly as he made his way home, which earned him two weird looks from his friends. But they were used to it.

Meanwhile the men and women that teach in Taichi's year suddenly had an ominous feeling, as if something terrible was about to happen…

* * *

So Tai is now Gatomon's adopted son. He's going to be pissed when he finds out.

I also don't know anything about school in Japan, so I just modelled it after my own school (without the uniforms)

By the way, I modelled Heero a bit after myself, and that with the bullies actually happened once. Oh they felt it al right 'Evil laugh'  
Also I had a friend like Joni in my previous school. Cursed like a sailor but had a heart of gold. Ah precious memories...

Also, we'll probably see the rest of the team next chapter.

Reviews 

Graypheonix: schoolwork! Oh how I loathe thee! But I don't have to worry about it for another 17 days. Oh crap.

Martiny the one and only still: have fun!

Super garurumon: nah, this way it's much more fun

Lord Pata: indeed, that hat sucked. But that's why it's so easy to poke fun with it

Beth: probably next chapter, or the one after that, don't know for sure yet. Oh and about Elecmon and the eggs, in the epilogue I said that the two of them were buried underneath a mountain of eggs. And I needed a way for 25 years to go by.

Firehedgehog: poking stuff is fun, isn't it?

Depthmon: have fun there and don't wait to long to update when you get back 'wink'

R&R people!


	5. Hero's return

Ronald still doesn't own digimon as his ninja hamsters failed to steal the required documents

* * *

Spirits of Ages

Chapter 4

It had been two weeks already. Time went fast. Not fast enough though. Taichi was still grounded and his black digi-egg still didn't hatch, which meant he'd be grounded longer, which resulted into an angry Taichi.

Which, in its turn, resulted in a creative Taichi. This, off course, was a bad thing, as it involved stuff getting blown to pieces.

Taichi sighed. He sat down on his bed and stared at his egg. He got it back from his aunt Gato, after he promised never to take it out of the house.

Off course he pulled a prank on her for stealing it in the first place.

_Flashback_

"_Damn you Taichi!" Gatomon yelled out as she looked at the still burning remains of her litter box._

_End flashback_

That was an interesting explosion, to say the least. Off course he'd be paying for a new litter box, but both he and Patamon agreed that it was totally worth it.

That's another thing that happened. Patamon was on his side now. Something about 'suffering for too long'

Who knew he loved his beard so much?

Anyway, school was still boring and the homework was getting to him. If only there was a way to destroy it and the school in one blow.

He could, off course, think of a few ways, but most of those involved arson. But Taichi would be damned before he did the same as anyone before him.

He sighed and stood up again. it had already been sixteen days since he got the damn egg and it still didn't show any signs of hatching.

"Perhaps he's afraid of getting aunt Gato as a mother." Taichi said to no one in particular.

Inside the egg.

'**Got that right.' **Tai thought. He wasn't looking forward to meeting this 'aunt Gato' at all. She sounded like one of those crazy cat people, you know. the kind that lives with like twenty cats and throws said felines at unsuspecting passer-by's.

Outside again.

Taichi stared at the egg again and turned around. He booted up his computer.

He didn't really know what to do on it. He didn't have any new game or something and the ones he had were either finished or frustratingly hard.

Taichi surfed the web for a while, trying to find out how to make eggs hatch faster, before realising that he didn't have an incubator. The fact that an egg the size of a football doesn't fit in one should have tipped him off earlier.

He sighed. He had been doing that a lot lately. Taichi blamed the egg for that.

He hoped that something interesting would happen soon. It didn't matter what: apocalypse, alien invasion, anything to relieve him of his boredom.

* * *

Meanwhile, on Mars.

Haacholei the fifth was currently in a meeting with his fellow Martians. He had a fool-proof plan of how to conquer the blue planet.

That was until Gabumon accidentally stepped on him, his city and their entire military fleet.

"Damn dust." Gabumon grumbled as he stomped his feet , trying to get it off, but only succeeding in getting more on his boots.

And so, Gabumon saved the human race from utter annihilation.

* * *

Back on earth.

Taichi got up again and headed towards the living room. He'd check if there was anything on TV.

He sat down on the couch, pulled the remote out of nowhere and switched it on.

"…_the flames have consumed nearly the entire apartment building. Thanks to swift action of Odaiba's fire fighters there were no casualties. Leading firefighter Motomiya tells us that the fire was caused by an arsonist, the fifth time this month..."_

"Great, the news again…" Taichi sighed. "Isn't there anything interesting on?" He switched the channel a few times but found nothing.

There was only one option left.

May god help him…

* * *

Five minutes later.

Taichi sat on his bed, reading a book. Yes, you red that correctly. He finally decided to read his father's book. Boredom can do that to you.

It wasn't that dull as he expected it to be. To be honest, it was quite interesting.

Not that he'd ever admit it to his father.

* * *

The next day.

Today was a good day. Why? Because Saturday is a good day. No matter how you look at it.

Except of course if you're STILL grounded!

But at least he didn't have to wear those goddamn uniforms. No-no. A t-shirt of your favourite band and a pair of jeans, that's Taichi's choice of wardrobe.

Taichi was poking his egg once more, urging it to hatch.

Inside the egg.

'**God damnit! He's at it again!' **Tai complained. **'This just can't be healthy.'**

Outside again.

Aunt Gato luckily noticed the abuse and stole the egg from Taichi again.

"Get back here!" Taichi yelled and ran after her.

Gatomon currently held the egg football style, tugged under her left arm, holding the other one out for potential obstacles.

"Catch!" She yelled as Patamon flew by. Patamon, who had no idea what was going on, caught the egg by chance and continued flying towards his destination. Which was the kitchen.

Or more precisely Kari's omelettes.

Kari had found her brother's omelette recipe somewhere with his belongings. Heck, she found a whole lot of recipes in his stuff.

Old Tai was quite the gourmet chef, not that he'd ever admit it.

"Good morning." Patamon said as he flew into the kitchen. "Hey." Kari greeted, before returning to her eggs.

"Think you can make this one into an omelette?" Patamon joked, as he dropped the egg gently on the round kitchen table.

"Perhaps but I think Gatomon and Taichi would skin me alive for that." Kari laughed.

"Indeed." Gatomon said as she took her place at the table. She flexed her claws to show she was serious.

"Damn it aunt Gato, stop doing that!" Taichi yelled as he entered the kitchen. TK, who had been reading his newspaper until now, scowled at him. "Don't yell in the kitchen." With that he returned to his newspaper.

Taichi glared at him for a second and then returned to his other problem. "As I was saying, stop stealing my egg."

"Only if you stop poking my baby!" Gatomon said back.

"It's not yours." Taichi glared at the feline.

"Then whose is it?" Patamon asked. This shut them all up. "Good point." TK said from behind his newspaper.

"Anyway…" Taichi started. "How long do you thin it will take to hatch?" His anxiety was rising a bit. There couldn't be anything wrong with it, right?

"Beats me." Gatomon said. She pulled the egg closer and pressed her ear to the shell, trying to catch any sounds from within.

"Rubbing it might work." TK said as he turned a page. "It worked for Patamon." He continued, remembering the events of that time all to clearly.

Taichi's gaze went from the egg to his father, to Patamon and then back to the egg. "Well…It's worth a shot."

"But not on the kitchen table dear. It's unsanitary." Kari quickly said. "Hey!" Gatomon and Patamon yelled out at the same time. "We find that offensive!" Gatomon continued while Patamon just 'Hmp'ed' as a sign of disagreement.

"Very well then, I'll go back to my room…after breakfast." Taichi said.

* * *

Ten minutes and three quickly devoured omelettes later, the three of them retreated to Taichi's room. Patamon and Gatomon sat down on the bed immediately.

"Okay, let's do this." Taichi said. He sat down on his bed, between Gatomon and Patamon, the egg on his lap. He stared at it, an intense look clear in his eyes.

Taichi then proceeded with poking his egg again.

Gatomon sighed, jumped up and hit her adopted cousin in the head. Softly, in case you were wondering.

"What did I say about the poking?" Gatomon asked sternly. Taichi glared at her as he rubbed the sore spot on his head, not that it hurt or anything.

"Just rub it gently." Patamon said to draw both their attentions back to the black egg.

Taichi did as he was told and rubbed it. The egg wobbled a bit on its own. This was a good sign.

"Hey wait." Patamon suddenly said, drawing the attention to him again. "What is in this egg?"

"Eh." Come to think of it. Neither of them had ever seen an egg this colour. "No clue." Gatomon said. "But we won't know till it hatches."

"True. But there's still something odd about it." Patamon narrowed his eyes a bit. "It has a dark aura." Patamon hadn't been around the egg a lot, so he never sensed it before. But there was indeed a soft aura around the egg. "Barely there but I still feel it." With all that had happened to them Patamon had developed a sixth sense for stuff like that.

"What are you talking about?" Taichi asked. He hadn't felt anything about the eggs aura. Did eggs even have an aura?

"The same." Gatomon added. "And even if it has an 'dark aura' like you just said. That doesn't mean it's evil or anything." Gatomon lectured her hubby. "Dark and evil are still two entirely different things. Remember Machinedramon and Tai?"

"What about me?" Taichi asked.

"Not you love. Your uncle. From you mother's side. Haven't you read you dad's book?" Gatomon asked, cocking her head to the left a bit.

"Off course I have. Just not that part." Taichi said. He had started reading it yesterday, but didn't make it very far into the story.

"We'll tell you all about your uncle after the egg hatches, okay?" Taichi nodded and returned to the rubbing of the egg.

Meanwhile in the egg.

'**What the hell? This guy even has an uncle named after me!' **Tai thought. **'Though those voices sounded familiar for some reason.'**

Outside again.

"This is getting boring." Taichi said. With on hand he rubbed the egg, the other he picked up the remote of his stereo. He pressed play. He had forgotten one thing though.

He had cranked up the volume to ten last night and let's just say that the consequences were amusing.

"Turn that thing off!" Patamon was currently doing his best to cover his ears, which was quite a task seeing that he had ears big enough to lift him from the ground.

"Sorry!" Taichi yelled, not that anyone heard him. A quick press on the red button and Patamon was able to uncover his ears again.

"Let's never do that again." Patamon said. "I agree." Gatomon said, crawling back on the bed, as the force of the music had blown her off.

"You guys just don't appreciate good music." Taichi crossed his arms. In doing so he nearly dropped his egg to the ground.

"Foolish nephew." Gatomon muttered as he caught it just before it hit the ground.

Taichi apparently hadn't heard her and just started rubbing the egg again.

'Wobble-wobble.'

"Hey it moved again."

'Wobble-wobble'

"It's going to hatch!"

Inside the egg.

'**FREEDOM!!'**

'Crack!'

Light suddenly flooded Tai's eyes. Being born again, or hatched again was an odd sensation. Sure, he had done it before, but that time he just awoke in a forest, in a more or less human form.

This time was a different story. He quickly closed his eyes as the light still burned.

"Aww. It's so cute!" He heard a voice yell out. She, as it was a female voice, probably wasn't yelling though. His ears just weren't used to sounds like those anymore.

"Sure it's cute now, just wait till it becomes a mean fighting machine." Another voice, rather young and enthusiastic .

"Idiot." The first voice again.

"Look at the cute little fuzz ball." Another voice. Male and a bit older this time. **'HEY!' **Tai thought.** 'Who the hell are you calling cute!' **He actually tried to yell that but it came out in a series of squeaks.

"Hey, I think he likes me." The young voice again. Tai slowly opened his eyes, as the light didn't hurt as much anymore.

'**Oh hell no.'**

Tai now had a good look at his new body. Which seemed rather useless, as he seemed to be some kind of hair ball with dog ears and a tail. No other limbs or anything.

But the weirdest thing was the fact that he was looking up at a clone of himself.

'**What the hell!?'**

"Is it normal that they squeak like that?" The clone asked. "Pretty much." Patamon answered. **'Hey! I know that guy!' **Tai thought. **'What has happened since Legionmon?' **He thought. He couldn't remember anything off what happened after he and BlackAgumon sacrificed themselves.

Tai looked around and saw Gatomon. **'I know that one too.' **He also noticed that both she and Patamon looked older. '**What is this, the future?'**

"Another question." Clone-Tai started. "How long is he going to stay cute like this. I don't do cute." Tai glared at the clone. Or at least tried to.

"He'll stay like that for a while." Gatomon answered. "But let's go show the little baby to his aunt and uncle.

'**Gatomon! You are so dead when I get my claws back!' **Tai yelled as Gatomon picked him up.

* * *

Finally! Tai's back! And he's fluffy and cuddly…

Reviews.

Super garurumon: Yes Tai is like her brother. But Gatomon doesn't know that it's Tai yet

Lord Pata: Indeed, Patamon is gonna play dad. Poor Patamon

Graypheonix: damn you! 'shakes angry fist' Ahh! Only three days left of vacation!

Martiny the one and only still: OMG they ate Cody!

Beth: there we go, he hatched and he's pissed off. And about DemiSphinxmon, just imagne him like a Houndor with a short lion's mane, silver claws and a golden collar with a red stone in it. And don't worry, we'll see a lot of mother Gatomon next chapter, including something like that

Firehedgehog: indeed, but I didn't like this one, as it was more filler then anything else.

Depthmon: Finally! A sixteenth person! Whoo! More flashbacks! More flashbacks!

Takari4ever3012: You'll see his reaction next chapter 'evil laugh'

CherrygirlUK : See above 'continues evil laughter'


	6. The Memory Remains

Onward ninja hamsters! Retrieve the rights to Digimon! Untill they get back, I don not own Digimon.

* * *

Spirits of Ages

Chapter 5

"**Someone's going ****to die for this!" **Tai yelled**. "And in a very painful way!"**

"Still sure they should be this loud?" Taichi asked as he covered his ears to drown out the continuous squeaking of his new digimon partner.

"Actually I'd be worried if he was quiet." Gatomon said. She had some experience with digital babies, as she had helped Elecmon after the battle with Legionmon.

The four of them walked into the kitchen, the exception being Tai, who was still in Gatomon's loving dead grip.

"Check it out!" Taichi yelled at his parents. "He or she, not really sure yet, hatched! I'm free again!"

"That's nice dear." Kari said. Gatomon, Patamon and Taichi sat down at the table. Gatomon put the fluffball known as Tai down on the table.

"So…" TK put down his newspaper, which meant that he was interested as well else he'd never put it down. "What is it?"

"No idea." Gatomon admitted. "Never seen one of these before." Patamon added.

Tai was currently studying the two adults in the kitchen. He knew them, he was sure of that.

"**Kari?" **She had aged a bit but it was really her! He then realised how much time had passed. How much he had missed. **'I didn't even recognise her immediately… How much time has gone by?'**

With that thought in mind Tai looked at the other person in the room.

'**Let's see… Blonde hair, green eyes, probably wears awful hats…'**

Tai's eyes shot open.

"**TK! Didn't I tell you to stay away from my sister!!" **Tai had said that so many times, even though he had to admit that he liked TK more then any other boys that came after Kari. But it was still his duty as a big brother to kill the man that dared to touch his baby sister.

"**DIE!!"**

TK, oblivious to the dead threat, lowered his head a bit and studied the squeaking ball of fur. The dog ears were incredibly cute and for some reason he felt like he should poke them. But he decided against it. He was a grown man and able to suppress such strange urges.

'Poke'

Or not.

"I think he likes me." TK said as Tai got even angrier.

"**Aaaahh!" **With a powerful war squeak Tai launched himself at TK, killer intent visible in his eyes.

TK caught him midair, eyed him strangely before smiling. "It's a feisty one!" Tai proceeded to glare at him. He still hated being called an 'it' even if it was just because they didn't know what gender he was.

"Okay, maybe that's to much excitement for one day." Gatomon said as she crawled onto the table and held her paws out to TK. TK smiled and put the angry ball of fur in her paws.

"Come on little one, I have such a cute thing for you." Gatomon grinned like the Cheshire cat and Tai knew he was in trouble.

* * *

'**I saved the world three times. I died once for it and got reincarnated for it… and this is how it repays me.'**

Tai was currently the proud owner of two pink bows, tied around his ears.

"Aunt Gato!" Taichi whined. "You're making him look to cute!"

"I think she looks nice with them." Gatomon laughed.

**"I think you're as good as dead."**

The three of them had returned to Taichi's room. Patamon had decided to get away from all the commotion and went for a flight around the block. This meant that he was gone for quite some while. Not because it was a large block, just because he still gets lost every time he leaves the house.

"Now, I believe I owe you a story, right?" Gatomon sat up on the bed. "Indeed." Taichi smiled. He picked Tai up and sat him on his lap. "By the way, I am Taichi, your new partner." He flashed a smile at the fuzzball.

'**You're next to go.' **Taichi glared. **'Ripping me off like that, cousin or not you're dead.'**

"Well as you know, you're named after your uncle." Gatomon started. "He was an idiot through and through." **"Hey!" **"But also a brave man and I was glad to call him my brother." **"Better."**

"What's up with him?" Taichi asked. "I think he's tired." Gatomon said. "We'll just make this story a bedtime story for him."

"**It isn't even noon yet!" **Tai yelled out.** "And since when do I need someone to chose my bed time for me?" **He glanced down a bit. **"Oh right…"**

"Let's get this started then." Gatomon tried again. "As I was saying… your uncle was a brave young man. Selfless, caring. Kind of like you, only you pull more pranks then he did."

'**Ooh a challenger.' **Tai thought.

"This story begins two years after the time where we, along with the new digidestined, saved the world for a second time." She said, remembering the events all to well. "We were celebrating the defeat of MaloMyotismon." That name still created a nameless fear into the very core of her soul.

"Tai was late, as he just had to bring Joe with him." She smiled sadly. "Damn doctor wouldn't show up anywhere if you don't force him to."

Tai listened closely. He had lived this story, so he knew all the details of it. But he had never heard it from their point of view.

"The two of them showed up, unknowingly bringing an uninvited guest with them. ShadowWereGarurumon… The poor thing was possessed by an evil entity so he had no idea of what he did."

Taichi braced himself. He just knew what was going to happen next.

"That digimon just attacked Tai, he didn't even pay attention to us. He just attacked your uncle." She forced back a few tears, the ones that always came up as she though about that dreadful day.

"He stabbed your uncle straight in the heart."

Tai felt his heart clench.

"Joe told us that he was dead immediately...tha-that he didn't suffer."

"**How would he know?! It hurt like hell!"**

"Agumon, your uncle's digimon partner was deleted as well. In a blink of an eye we lost two important people."

Taichi gulped. For some reason he just couldn't think of anything to say to his aunt, to make her feel better.

"Joe and Gomamon then proceeded to go berserk and crushed ShadowWereGarurumon." Gatomon continued. "As you already know Joe never had many friends. He has us now but before… Tai was one of the first he saw as a true friend."

Taichi made a mental note of to ask Joe about his uncle when he had the time. Which was often as the doctor refused to do his duties most of the time.

"Everything just sped up from then. After the funeral it began to sink in. Tai was gone and he would never come back." She swallowed hard. "Then everything went wrong. Sora and Matt broke up, Izzy became a recluse, Joe developed an alcohol problem and your father fell into a depression "

"A depression? Him?" Taichi's eyes bulged. "No way." His father was an ever cheerful man, always in the mood for a good joke and there to cheer you up when you're down.

Gatomon nodded. "Yes, the same man. He'll never admit it but your uncle was like a brother to him. Also, Mimi had an emotional breakdown. She loved your uncle but she was to shy to tell him."

Taichi's eyebrows rose in surprise. 'Mimi and shy? Never thought that.' His mother's friend was one of the most open people he knew, even if just barely.

"Davis changed as well. He became more serious when it came to the digital world." She chuckled. "But in the real world he was still the biggest idiot I ever met."

Tai laughed. **"Damn right about that. Idiot thought I was a dog."**

"It took your mother months to get your father to open up a bit. Eventually she managed to drag him to the digital world. More specifically the Primary Village."

"TK actually did cheer up a bit when we got there." A new voice said. Kari stood in the doorway to Taichi's room.

"You want to help tell the rest?" Gatomon offered.

"Don't mind if I do." She admitted as she sat down on the chair at Taichi's desk.

"We arrived at the Primary Village, intend on finding Elecmon, one of your father and Patamon's friends. The four of us were shocked to find some strange and evil looking digimon there."

"**Who're you calling strange and evil?!" **Tai yelled out. Kari reached out and picked him up. She then proceeded to pet him. **"Hey stop that!"**

"TK always had a rather short fuse when it comes to dark digimon." Kari continued, ignoring the annoyed squeaks coming from the hairball. "He lashed out immediately at the creature, not even questioning his motives for being there."

Another thing he couldn't see his father do. Taichi was surprised that a man he knew his entire life could act like that. Shows how much you truly know about the ones you love.

"The digimon's name was Lowemon." Kari continued. "He looked truly fearsome, black armor, looked like he could crush you like a bug."

"We fought him. He digivolved" Gatomon continued. "And we got our asses handed to us, big time."

"He was about to kill us when he suddenly just left." Kari added. "We then found out that Agumon, your uncle's digimon, was recycled, so we took him home."

"For a few days nothing happened." Kari said. "Until Davis burned down the school."

Taichi face vaulted. "Davis… as in Davis, leading fire-fighter, Motomiya?"

"The same." Kari smiled. Davis had, for some reason decided that he wasn't cut out to be a chef. More important, he got the urge to start helping people. So that how he ended up as a proud member of the fire-fighters.

"So we all partied down, as they said back then. Davis was our hero." Kari smiled, as she thought of the antics of her friend.

"Around that time Gennai also went missing." Gatomon said. "He disappears from time to time, but this time he was gone. No trace of him left."

"And then some doglike digimon appeared in the real world." Kari said, wringing her hands as she got to the good part of the story.

"Elusive little bugger he was." Patamon, who found his way home rather early, flew through the open window. "Hey my love." He hovered next to the love of his life and gave her a quick peck on the lips. He did only this because his nephew had the nasty habit of gagging every time he saw the two of them kissing.

"I heard the two of you talking from outside." He continued. "Though I'll leave this part of the story to you, as I wasn't around to experience it."

"If I remember correctly…" Kari held her hand to her chin in thought. "Davis was the first one to find the new digimon. He said something about being tricked by its smart mind games when we met up to find it."

"**Mind games my ass." **Tai said. **"I just insulted him, barked, talked, barked and the idiot fell for it."**

"So we rounded up a team to find it and send it back to the digital world. Mimi and Sora found him first but he escaped them."

"**Damn right. They wanted to neuter me!"**

"You know... I truly hated Mimi back then. Well that may be a bit to much but..." Kari added. She didn't really hate her though, she was just angry at her. "She was in love with your uncle. Everyone knew it, except Tai. He never was one to notice such things."

"Then I found the rookie in our own apartment." Gatomon said, getting back to the story. They'd tell Taichi about Mimi's crush later. "He and Koromon, your uncle's digimon's in-training form, claimed that the dog was Tai."

Taichi deadpanned. There was no way in hell that someone could come back as a digimon, right?

"Off course I didn't believe him. And then tried to electrocute him. So he, Koromon and some unknown Patamon flew off."

"Meanwhile me, Joe, Mimi, Sora and Davis were discussing Joe's alcohol problem ." Kari added. "The night before he had claimed he was the queen of England, while wearing a toga and a traffic cone." Kari laughed. She wasn't there to see it but she got the story from Mimi and Sora. Now it was a rather amusing memory. Back then she had truly feared for Joe's safety and those around him.

"**I got to drag his drunk ass to the portal." **Tai scoffed. **"He better didn't start again, else I'll kick him square in the nuts. When I get my limbs back."**

Taichi just couldn't imagine old, serious Joe doing that. Alcohol could do strange things to people it seemed. Right then Taichi made a promise to himself to watch out with the stuff, once he was old enough to drink it. (I did the same thing when I was his age. Drink responsibly!) Though he did store the traffic cone suggestion in his idea file.

"And right about then. Joe said: 'I'll stop drinking when I get hit by a meteor.' Around that moment that digimon fell from the sky, onto Joe's head."

"We exchanged some words, threw a few punches and then he digivolved into Lowemon." Gatomon continued the story. "We then proceeded to crush him, causing that strange Patamon to become Baromon."

Taichi held up his hands, signalling her to stop. "Wait, so you're saying that Baromon, the guy who works with Elecmon used to hang out with my uncle?" Now that they mentioned it, Baromon had told him about his uncle a few times… but that was a long time ago.

"The same." Kari said. "And then we saw Tai's face. It was him, my brother." She spoke in a soft voice.

"Okay, now I'm confused." Taichi said. "First that Lowemon attacks you and then he turned out to be my uncle? Then why did he attack you?"

"**Actually, they attacked me."**

"Actually we attacked him." Kari admitted. "And he was under control by the one who brought him back to life."

"But that part of the story is for another time." Kari said. "If I remember correctly you were supposed to go and see your friends when this one hatched." Kari handed Tai back to her son.

"**What? Hey, I am not some pet, you hear me!" **Tai yelled angrily, though he knew that they couldn't understand him.

Taichi ran off, with Gatomon in his wake, who on her turn was yelling something about 'it not being good for the baby!'

* * *

I wrote this chapter to make a recaps of what happened in the first part, to freshen up my own memory and to write the digidestined's side of the story. Taichi will hear the rest of the story another chapter, perhaps from his own uncle.

By the way, TK is still reading his newspaper. The Apocalyps itself can't keep that man away from his newspaper.

Next time: Tai meets up with his nephew's friends. Poor Tai.

Reviews

Lord Pata: I plan on shocking him even more when he digivolves

Martiny the one and only still: poor Cody. I liked him. And Agumon will show up sooner or later.

CherrygirlUK: Yes. He is. And he hates it!

Super garurumon: He does remember everything but he has no idea of how much time has gone by since he defeated Legionmon.

Depthmon: 'Sees author walking down the street, who then gets crushed by a cow.' Trust me, if Tai was able to, I'd be dead a million times over (Woot! 50!)

Firehedgehog: nice you like it ;)

Takari4ever3012: indeed!

Beth: Indeed they will be. Also: Gatomon does think he's a girl ;) and I knew about Gato being cat. I red it somewhere. And do you mean his rookie form? Then he's a Labrador pup, with a short mane and collar.

Rose: There's going to be a bit in it, though not immediately. But I assure you the two of them will have a happy ending ;)

WolfSummoner93: update is here!

Nick Johnson: okay, question 1: it's a sequel to spirits of destiny, which is an 02/04 cross-over

2: currently there's TK and Kari's house, the school, the hospital and Mars. More will be added later off course.

3: 27 years after the events of 02

4: every character of the main cast, though not all of them have shown up yet. And a few oc's.

5: Kari, TK are 40, Joe is 43, Tai is 42 (though he doesn't know how much time has gone by), Sora, Matt, Izzy and Mimi are 41. The 'new' digidestined are roughly the same age as TK and Kari.

R&R people!


	7. Straight through the mirror

Ronald only owns this piece of pie! 'eats pie' Great, now I own nothing...

* * *

Spirits of Ages

Chapter 6

"**You are so dead! All of you!" **Tai yelled but his complaints fell upon deaf man's ears. The main reason being that he was a black fluff ball with no way of expressing himself. Of course he could squeak like hell, but no one understood that.

Joni, his nephew's friend, was currently squeezing the life out of him. "Eh Joni, he has to breathe sometimes." Taichi's other, more nerdy friend said. The three of them were currently in Joni's room. Purple and black were the dominant colours here. Must have something to do with the girl's hair colour.

"No she doesn't." She said, causing Taichi and Heero to sweat drop and the original Tai to fear for his life.

"**Air!"**

Eventually the purple-haired girl did let go off him.

"**You're next on my kill list." **Tai grumbled.

'**Let's see, so that makes… TK, my nephew, the author (who ever that is) and ****my nephew's little girlfriend.' **He mentally went over his list.

"Does she have a name?" Joni asked, still not letting go off Tai, even though he could breathe now.

"Not really." Taichi admitted. "I just call him fuzzball."

"**And that's why you're nr2 on my kill list."**

"So now what?" Heero asked. "We all saw Taichi's fluff ball, which means he's free again."

"Indeed. So what can we…" Taichi trailed off as he spotted Joni's computer. A smile crept on his face.

"Oh dear. I know that smile." Heero said. "This is going to be painful, dangerous or both."

Taichi pulled out his digivice.

"**I vote on both!"**

* * *

Two minutes and a trip through the fabric of dimensions later

"So… could the two of you get off me?" Heero asked.

The three of them were currently lying in a three-man pile, with Tai sitting on the top. **"At times like these, it's great to be a digimon." **He laughed.

"Not funny fuzzball." Taichi said back to his digimon. He figured he was laughing right now, even if it still sounded like a bunch of squeaks.

"People, they're still the problem that you're crushing me." Heero complained.

"Oh stop whining and take it like a man." Joni said.

The two of them got off of Heero while Tai jumped to the ground.

"Hey, what's up with our outfits?" Heero pointed out. He was currently wearing a rather cool dark blue jacket, a black t-shirt and his normal jeans. "This isn't what we came in with." Joni admitted as she checked out her own new outfit, which consisted of a purple tank top and a jeans jacket.

"Yeah that happens when you go into the digital world." Taichi said. "No idea why though." He said as he pointed at his rather plain black T-shirt.

"New wardrobes aside, were the hell are we?" Joni asked.

"Well my dear Joni, we are in the digital world. A world were nothing is impossible! Where miracles…" Joni then hit him on the head to prevent him form going on.

"I know that numbskull. I mean, where in the digital world, are we?" She looked around, only to see a shattered mountain and a crystal-like form in the distance. The rest was obscured by trees.

"We're on File Island." Taichi said, rubbing the lump on his head. "Over there is what remains of Infinity mountain also known as Mount Infinity. Don't know what happened to it though."

Heero just pushed his glasses up again. "What's the big red thing there?"

"No clue." Taichi admitted.

"Don't you know anything?" Joni asked.

"Yes I do." Taichi defended himself. "Just not what that is."

"Hey Taichi?" Heero suddenly said. "What is it?"

"I red your fathers books and I have a question. Are there really that many monsters around here? You know, the kind that would like to eat us?"

"Don't worry, the amount of evil flesh eating monsters isn't very high on this island." Taichi said as if it was nothing. "They're all on Server. And don't worry my friend. When the need arises Fuzzball here will save us."

Heero and Joni both looked at Tai. "We're doomed." The two of them said.

"**Hey! I can defend myself against any digimon! Not that I'd try to save you or anything. Maybe the chubby guy, he isn't on my kill list…yet."**

So, knowing that they were safe (at least one of them) they took off towards unknown places.

* * *

"Where the hell are we?" Joni asked. They had been wandering around for hours. "I feel like we've been running in circles."

"She could be right about that." Heero said. "I've seen that tree three times before." He pointed at a tree filled with traffic signs.

"Also, where are the scary digimon? I want to see SkullGreymon. The way your dad described it, they seem like my kind of digimon." Joni added. She had red the book, ignored the fact that SkullGreymon was some kind of nightmare and decided that he was cute instead.

"Eh…SkullGreymon is an ultimate level, so they're probably on Server." Taichi said.

"What server?" Heero asked.

"Not what server. Just Server, it's the name of the continent over the sea." Taichi said. He had only been there a few times but he roughly knew where it was.

"Oh right." Heero said, mentally berating himself for forgetting that fact.

"Can we go there? Please?" Joni did her best impression of a puppy to get her way. And if that didn't work she'd pound him till it did.

"Eh sorry, bad idea." Taichi said, hoping that that didn't earn him a hit to the head. "Server is filled with Ultimate digimon. We have a Baby level digimon with us."

"So if we want to live, which I do, we're staying right here." Heero said.

Joni clenched her fist, causing the two boys to back away in fear. "Okay then, but when Fuzzball evolves you're taking me there."

"Deal!" The two of them yelled out, glad that they would live to see another day.

"**Idiots." **Tai said to himself.

"So any idea where we're going?" Heero asked. "We've been wandering around for like an hour."

"No idea to be honest." Taichi said, currently holding Fuzzball in his arms. Tai was trying to get away from his nephew. **"I can walk on my own damnit." **Tai looked down.** "Even if I don't have any limbs."**

"Hey calm down Fuzzball." Taichi said as he tried to get a better hold on the struggling ball of fuzz.

"Maybe he's sensing something dangerous." Heero said, not liking the thought of that at all.

"**Like I'd warn you then." **Tai scoffed.

"I think he doesn't like his partner." Joni laughed.

"**Get that girl a cookie!"**

"Not funny." Taichi said as he pushed away a branch with one hand, while trying to hold on to his partner digimon with the other.

"But I know just the thing we can do right now." Tai's face turned to a grin as an old wooden bridge over a beautiful river caught his eye.

* * *

"Ha! We made it!" Taichi yelled out. "The Primary Village!"

"I thought we were lost?" Heero asked confused.

"So did I, till we passed that river." Taichi said confidently. "With that known I was able to get here easily.

"So this is the Primary Village?" Joni asked, looking at the multi-coloured blocks. "Oh my God, it's even fluffier then your dad described it!" She said in horror.

"You'll get used to it." Taichi reassured her.

The three of them walked through the Primary Village in search of Baromon. Off course Heero and Joni had no idea who or what they were looking for, so they just followed Taichi.

"**Ah so many memories." **Tai said. **"Bad memories, but still..."**

"Hey Baromon!" Taichi yelled out at the humanoid monster, working his way through the pile of eggs laying there.

Baromon waved at him and motioned them to come to him.

"Hey Taichi, where've you been? It's been two weeks." Baromon smiled at the smaller boy.

"Oh, I was grounded till this guy hatched." He held Tai up to Baromon. The demon man stared at Tai with thought. "Never seen one of those before."

"**Hey! I know that guy! Why on earth was he reassembled before me?"**

"I think he likes you." Taichi said as Baromon took Fuzzball from him.

"**Yeah, we were friends back then, till this idiot got himself deleted." **Tai glared at the demon man. **"And to save me, of all people."**

Baromon stared at the Baby digimon's brown eyes for a while, before allowing a grin to cover his face.

"Long time no see Taimon." He whispered in one of Tai's ears. Tai's eyes shot open. At least someone knew he was still alive.

"Well Taichi, you've got yourselves a rather rare digimon. Never before have I seen one of this species. Let me know what he'll turn into when he grows up, okay?" Baromon sounded genuinely interested but both he and Tai knew better.

'Man, I wish I could be there when they figure out who he really is.' Baromon still had that grin on his face as he handed Tai back to his nephew.

"I'll do that." Taichi said. "In the meantime, can my friends get a digi-egg too?" Joni and Heero's eyes shot open from surprise.

"You'll have to ask the boss about that." Baromon said, pointing a hand in GrapLeomon's general direction.

Said ultimate level digimon was currently carrying a net full of fish the size of a Greymon. Taichi, Heero and Joni ran up to him.

"Hey GrapLeomon! Overkill much?" Taichi said as he pointed at the net.

"Not really." GrapLeomon answered. "Little buggers eat this amount of fish up in about twenty minutes."

"Hey Taichi? Who is he? I thought Elecmon was the boss of this place?" Heero asked, still a bit dazed about Taichi's suggestion.

"Right you are lad, I just haven't been Elecmon for a good twenty years." GrapLeomon answered in Taichi's place. "All digimon eventually evolve to the ultimate level, you know."

"But anyway…" Taichi started. "I've got a question for you. Can these two." He pointed at hs friends. "Get a digimon of their own?"

GrapLeomon thought over it for a sec. "I don't see why not. As long as the digimon chose them and they take good care of them I'm okay with it."

"Don't worry we'll take good care of them!" Heero immediately yelled. It was no secret that the geeky boy wanted a digimon. Besides, his parents had promised he'd get a pet sooner or later, so why not a digimon?

"The same." Joni answered. Maybe It would turn into a SkullGreymon later on.

"Very well then. Apprentice! Get your ass over here!" Baromon came running. "Get these three to the pile."

"Yes bossman." Baromon responded, motioning the three to follow him back to the pile of digital eggs.

"Okay, so what I want you to do is pick up an egg and 'feel' if it's the right one for you." Baromon said. "You'll know when you get the right one. Also, I'm off for a minute, so try not to break anything, okay?"

With that said Baromon left, looking for something very important.

* * *

"Now I have to warn you, finding a digi-egg that suits you can take a very long time." Tai said as his friends picked up random eggs before putting them down again.

"Got it!" Heero yelled out as he lifted another egg. "Same here!" Joni yelled.

Tai's eyes went white in shock. "No fair." He sulked.

With that said two light formed and both Joni and Heero held a new digivice in hand.

"That wasn't so hard." Heero said as he checked out his digivice.

"For you perhaps." Taichi said. "It took me half a decade to get a digimon."

"What? The two of you already have one then?" Baromon appeared back on the scene, holding something in his hands.

"Yeah. It took them ten minutes. Ten frigging minutes!" Taichi snapped.

"Anyway…" Baromon decided to ignore his ranting and held something out to him. "What's that?" Taichi asked as he calmed down.

"A digi-egg nitwit." Baromon said. "Give it to your mom and tell her to take good care of it."

"Who's in there?" Joni asked. "An old friend." Baromon said, winking at the original Tai. **"I see…"**

"We should get back now." Taichi said as he pulled out his digivice, which told him that it was nearly time for diner. They had been wandering around longer then he thought. "Gatomon is going to kill me."

"Why is that?" Heero asked.

"I took her 'baby' out of the house for nearly five hours, so I'm dead." Taichi smiled and pointed at Tai, who began to sweat all of a sudden. He'd rather not go bacl there.

"Well nice knowing you." Joni said. "So where is the exit?"

"Follow me!"

* * *

Getting home was interesting. Taichi nearly died from a Lightning Claw attack from his aunt, he handed the egg to his mom and Fuzzball did another attempt at killing his father, which to onlookers seemed rather cute.

* * *

OMG Baromon knows! I thought I should add someone to the group who knows who Tai really is, so I picked him.

**Also Important! I have an idea for a new fanfiction!**

**It's a mass cross-over, though mainly digimon styled.**

**Summary: it is set at the Dark Masters arc. Piedmon recruited more allies and Gennai fears that his chosen ones can't handle it. So instead of calling them all back to the Digital World, he sends each of them to a different world, so they can gain strength before facing the dark masters. How will they handle ninjas, demons and half-demons and others?**

**What do you think? I'm still looking for a few worlds to send them to but I think it could work. So tell me what you think about it.**

Reviews

Martiny the one and only still: They ate Ken as well? I liked him too, well after the digimon emperor arc. Oh well.

Firehedgehog: indeed 'hides for Gatomon's wrath'

Lord Pata: indeed, poor beard and don't worry, Tai has only entered the first two circles of hell. There are still more! 'EVIL LAUGH'

Super garurumon: Actually i made a mistake there, Tai is still the same age as in SoD, cause he never hatched till now. But if he were alive he would 42.

Beth: in his fresh level, which he is in now, he's just a black-haired fuzzball with ears and a clear hate for his nephew. And a little bit of both actually, I thought of it before you reviewed but wasn't sure if I would use it ;)

Depthmon: that's his rookie form actually also, what the hell? That's one of the weirdest laws I have ever heard about.

Anime25: yes poor Agumon, he showed up in this chapter, even if he doesn't know it ;) And Tai will scare them, don't worry. Also the two of them will warm up to each other sooner or later and develop a somewhat normal familial relation, which involves lots and lots of explosions.

Hurrycurry: there you go

WolfSummoner93: and they're getting worse!

Takari4ever3012: yes cause actually he is a rather big idiot. A brave and courageous man but still an idiot.

Vigatus: that might be next chapter, not sure yet.

Coppa-Cola: I can imagine it 'laughs himself to dead.'

Thanks for reading, review and tell me what you think about my new idea!


	8. Time stands still

Ronald doesn't own digimon

* * *

Spirits of Ages

Chapter 7

"**You're all dead, each and every one of you!" **Tai yelled.** "You just don't know it yet!"**

Tai was being subjected to the daily torture known as Gatomon. Right now she was tying a bow around his left ear. A freaking pink bow!

He couldn't wait till he was able to go mega again and go medieval on their asses, especially Gatomon. Then TK, then the rip-off. Maybe he'd let Kari live. She was his sister after all.

He was starting to understand why some digimon wanted to destroy the world. He figured that they too had been subjected to ribbons when they were his stage.

"**Serious, this has to stop." **Tai said to himself.** "If only I could still digivolve." **He had tried and tried again but he just couldn't find the energy to do so. Perhaps that was because he was somehow connected to his nephew, through he digivice.

**"But where does that leave BlackAgumon?"** The egg was somewhere in the kitchen, where they currently were. Probably on the shelf somewhere. He immediately knew who it contained and was rather annoyed by the fact that Gatomon wasn't acting very mothering towards it.

"_Agumon is more like a brother to me." _She had said.

And so Tai found himself being the only victim to Gatomon's torture.

* * *

It took him a few days but he finally gathered enough energy to digivolve. Unfortunate for him, his nephew was there.

'poof'

"What the hell!?" Taichi yelled out. His digimon just exploded!

The smoke quickly cleared, revealing a pissed off looking puppy with a black mane of hair.

**"Finally!"** It yelled. "Hey cool!" Taichi ran over to his bed and crouched down. He looked the pup in the eyes. "So you finally became something else then a fuzzball, have you?"

**"Oh get lost pipsqueak."** It said back to him. "Hey!" Taichi yelled out, hating anyone commenting on his size. "You're one to talk, you're barely thirty cm long." Perhaps if the pup stood on his hind legs he'd be able to reach that high. "Besides, aren't you supposed to be my partner digimon, so why the big mouth?"

**"I'm not even supposed to be here, let alone be _your _partner digimon."** The puppy jabbed a paw at him.

Taichi hmp'ed and glared at the pup. "Well like it or not, we're a team from now on." Taichi said. "What's your name anyway?"

**"Get this damn bow off of me and I'll tell you."** Tai said, trying to get the ribbon off of his ear. **"And call your mom. Me and her have some things to discuss."**

"Eh okay…" Taichi said. What on earth could he want to discuss with his mom? 'Perhaps he doesn't like her cooking.'

Taichi pulled the ribbon off. "So what's your name then?"

**"They call me Tai."**

* * *

"Tai is that really you?" Kari asked. After Taichi had picked his jaw from the floor he had called her in. "It's me all right." He smiled, showing small canine teeth.

"That does explain the assassination attempts on TK…" She mused.

_Flashback_

"_Okay, who of you cut my breaks?"_

_End flashback_

**"I had nothing to do with that.**" Tai said, a halo appearing above his head as he spoke. "Sure you didn't." Kari laughed.

"Oh Tai." She engulfed the canine like digimon in a bone-crushing hug. "Do you know how much we missed you? We looked for years, but never found a trace of your digi-egg."

**"That's what happens when you get deleted before Legionmon."** He remembered clearly how he and BlackAgumon had collapsed before Legionmon did. **"Buried under a monster created from thousands upon thousands of monsters isn't cool."**

**"Not that I remember much of it."** He quickly added. He just assumed that was what had happened.

"Wait, what the hell is Legionmon and why are you called Tai? My uncle is called Tai, but you can't be him, can you?" Taichi was confused. His supposed digimon partner was also his uncle apparently. Life is weird.

**"Yes I am and keep quiet would you? The grownups are talking right now."** Tai said to his nephew, who started to fume. "You keep quiet! And who are you calling grownup? You don't even reach to my knee!"

**"Whatever, I'm still seventeen, that's seven years older then you pipsqueak."** Tai retorted as he jumped off of Kari's lap and proceeding to glare at his nephew. "Hey! I'm twelve!" Taichi yelled and glared back. He was to starting to prefer the time where all this digimon did was squeak. But then again, he could be insulting you and you'd never know it.

"Actually Tai, you're forty-two by now." Kari sweatdropped.

Tai deadpanned. **"What?"**

"Forty-two." Kari said sweetly. "You've been in that egg for twenty-five years."

Tai fell over onto his back, paws in the air, with one occasionally twitching. He knew a lot of time had passed. But twenty-five years? Perhaps fifteen he had thought. Or twenty. But twenty-five? That was a quarter of a century!

**"Twenty-five years?"** He asked, still not believing it. **"So long…"**

"Yeah." Kari said, picking the puppy-like digimon up again. She couldn't know what was going on within her brother's mind. She couldn't understand what it felt like.

**"So…"** Tai started. A million question filled his mind all of a sudden. **"What happened while I was gone?"**

"Not much." Kari said. "Only the fact that everything's more expensive and we're ruled by giant apes."

**"Thought so, it was bad-"** Tai's eyes shot open.

**"Giant apes? My god, the guy from the movies was right!"** Tai yelped.

"Nah, just kidding." Kari said, seeing the look on her brother's face.

**"That's a relief."** Tai said. **"I'd rather not serve some monkey overlords."** He laughed. Even after all this time his sister still got him, even if the jokes were rather obvious.

**"So what else happened? Nuclear wars? Contact with aliens? Hovercars?"** Tai asked. The future had so many possibilities.

"No nuclear wars, yet. They're currently preparing for peace negotiations to prevent that from happening." Kari said, a worried look on her face. But it cleared up rather quickly. "And no aliens yet. Though we have been able to put someone on Mars!"

**"On Mars?"** Tai asked. "Yeah, guess who's up there right now." Kari could barely contain her laughter.

"No clue." Tai said, though secretly hoping it was TK, preferably without any air.

"It's Matt." Kari laughed. "He was supposed to go to the moon but landed on Mars instead." Tai sweatdropped. Only Matt was able to do something like that.

"But uncle Matt's getting back soon." Taichi said. "It'll take him some time though."

**"Oh Matt."** Tai said as he shook his head. "**Only you are able to pull something like this off."** He said, voicing his earlier thoughts.

"And sorry but no, no hovercars yet." Kari smiled apologetically. "They're working on it though. It's Izzy's side project."

Tai laughed at that thought, Izzy flying around in a pimped-out hovercar.

**"So what the hell have you people been doing since I was gone?"** Tai demanded all of a sudden. he had been gone for twenty-five years. He expected some futuristic things but apparently they were working with the same old stuff as in his time.

"Well…" Kari bit her lip as she thought. She'd rather spare her brother of all the rotten stuff the world has been doing since he got deleted.

"Let's just say that the world is even more screwed up then when you were around." Kari said. "The main problem being that everyone is expecting war to come sooner or later." She sighed. She'd rather spare Tai's in-training form from this as it was more child-like then his champion form. But then he'd just complain about it later.

"So every country started some sort of arms race. Or they just enjoy creating more kinds of weapons." Kari said bitterly, ashamed of what her species was doing.

**"Arms race?"** Tai asked. "Indeed, that's what the peace negotiations are about." Kari answered. "It was rather foolish to make weapons and then talk."

"And so it backfired on us. Big time." Kari said gloomy. "Some idiots thought it was a good idea to work with bacterial warfare. They created a virus that could kill a human through stress alone."

"And off course, nearly everyone in the world has that problem, so enough daily stress and…" She let that sentence hang.

Tai was horrified by this.

"Those bastards were hung for it though, after the virus broke free. Luckily it was only a prototype!" Kari exclaimed, before berating herself for swearing in front of her son.

**"That's just plain awful."** Tai said, hoping that whatever that virus did wasn't too bad. It was just a prototype, right? **"But enough about the future, okay? It's getting me down."**

"Okay!" Kari smiled again. "Anything else you want to know?"

**"Yeah, how's Mimi**?" He was a bit nervous about asking about that. He figured that she had moved on with her life, just like his sister. His annoying cousin was proof of that.

"What a coincidence." Kari said. "I was just about to go see her. She's in the hospital again."

'Hospital?' He thought. 'Again?!'

"You coming Tai?"

"Ye**ah**!" The two Tais yelled at the same time. "Hey she was talking to me!"

"**No she wasn't!"** Tai jumped off of Kari's lap and glared at his cousin again.

"Actually I was talking to the both of you." Kari interfered, picking Tai up by the scruff of his neck. "Besides, the tow of you will have to learn to get along. After all, you're partners now." Tai and Taichi looked at one another, before turning their backs to each other and letting out a 'hmpp' For Tai this was rather interesting to see as he was still being held up by his sister.

'Almost exactly the same.' Kari thought. 'If only Gatomon was here right now, that would be even better.' Too bad for her but Gatomon and Patamon were having some 'alone' time. And TK was off doing who knows what. That is, if he survived Tai's latest assassination attempt.

_Meanwhile_

"_Oh come on, not again!" TK yelled as his car went rushing down the road._

And so did the two humans and former human go to the hospital, Tai still not knowing what to expect when he got there.

The other going along with them for his own reasons, having some questions for a certain doctor.

* * *

Meanwhile in the digital world.

Deep underground.

A black digi-egg was lying on the ground. Nothing around it but dust and the darkness with in the subterranean cave.

Evil washed off it in waves, corroding the earth around it slowly but surely as it waited in it's underground prison.

Soon it would reach the surface of the digital world once more.

A crack formed on it, purple light breaking through.

And then, in a flash that illuminated the entire cave. It broke apart.

* * *

OMG cliff-hanger!

Next chapter: Tai finds a nuclear device and installs it into TK's car! And Tai meets up with Mimi again.

I know it's a bit short but I wanted it out of the way.

Also, check out my profile for my all new author's rant! It has something to do with the fact that I can't seem to be able to write anything other then BH and SoA!

Reviews

Firehedgehog: sure, everyone has one, right? 'shows own kill-list'

Lord Pata: It's Agumon all right. Also, the two of them hitchhiked with Taichi.

Depthmon: I know, and sadly this one was no exception. See my profile for details.

Super garurumon: It would have been, with Joe going to the Naruto-world. Poor Joe. But I deleted it all ready because I can't continue it.

Martiny the one and only still: lol they ate Taichi! Now my fanfiction is doomed! Lol!

anime25: 'shoots tranquiliser dart at anime25' there you go, one update!

Vigatus: Poor Tai. He's going to get issues if this keeps up.

WolfSummoner93: Don't worry, explosions are coming soon

Fruitloop Trooper: don't worry about. But I thought I had send you a message about it… oh well

Rose: Yeah but i post-ponned it for a while.

Takari4ever3012: she is. 'runs and hides'

Beth: about your PM: I had it up for a few days but deleted it again. read on my profile why. Also, I am Flemish, from the north part of Belgium, so I barely speak any French at all. But I do know what Salut means.

A.YamiYugi: glad to have a new reader hope you enjoy this new chapter!

R&R people! It keeps me alive!


	9. Forever yours

Don't own it nah-na-na-nah Stop! Disclaimer time!

* * *

Spirits of Ages

Chapter 8

"I'm sorry ma'am but no pets allowed in the rooms." Some women behind a desk said to them as they walked into the hospital. Off course this pissed Tai off big time and he would have voiced his complaints.

If Kari hadn't covered his mouth.

"I know but this is a rather exceptional case." Kari said. "I'm sorry, it's just not possible, there is to much of a risk."

"**Oh come on lady, give us a break!" **Tai yelled after he broke free from Kari's grip. **"I'm just trying to visit an old friend, so throw the dog a bone, will you?"**

The receptionist was rather speechless as she had just been yelled at by a puppy.

"Okay then, but just this once." She said when she recovered from shock. "And don't let my boss find out, else he'll hang me."

"Your secret is safe with us." Taichi said, obviously not noticing all the people in the hall.

* * *

"Well, I'm off to see Joe, I've got some questions for him." Taichi said. "Later!"

With that said the big-haired copycat disappeared towards Joe's office.

"**Wow, thought we'd never get rid of him."** Tai said as soon as his nephew was out of sight. "Hey! He's your nephew, remember?" Kari scoffed at the puppy in her arms. "And he's your partner, somehow. So the two of you will have to learn to get along."

"**Yeah yeah, I know."** Tai sighed.

The way towards Mimi's room was rather uneventful. Tai just thought of what Kari told him on the way there.

_Flashback_

"_**So what's everyone up to lately?"**__ Tai asked as he sat down in the backseat of Kari's car._

"_Want the whole story or the short one?" Kari asked as the car was guided out of her driveway._

"_**The short one, you can tell me the long one later." **__Tai said quickly. He'd rather know how everyone was, not their life stories._

"_Well you know about TK and me, he's a writer and I'm a kindergarten teacher, though the school is starting very late this year. Apparently there's something wrong with the building and they need to sort stuff out first."_

_Kari thought about the other people in their team. "Joe's a doctor, so no award for guessing that. He got married and has a daughter, you'll probably meet her today."_

"_**So Joe got hitched after all?" **__Tai wasn't surprised actually. Joe was a good guy, only a bit nervous. And geeky. And he has two left hands. And…_

"_Yeah, but I'll leave the details to Joe to tell." Her tone betraying that it was something serious. But she just didn't feel like discussing it so freely either._

"_Matt is on Mars, but he's also a rock star." Kari said, clearly amused by the look on Tai's face. __**"Still the same band?"**_

"_Yeah, they're big here and in the rest of the world as well. Oh and he's married to Sora. She has her own clothesline and the two of them moved to America." _

"_**Always knew that would happen." **__Tai said.__** "Sora always had something with clothes, even if she never showed it."**_

"_And then there's Izzy. He's the one responsible for sending Matt into space. Davis is currently leading fire-fighter." The thought of the arson Davis caused still in the back of her mind. "Eh… Cody is an lawyer and got married, he's got a son a few years younger then Taichi. Ken and Yolei got together and Ken is a detective and Yolei fixes computers in her spare time. They've got two daughters and a son."_

"_That guy scares the crap out of me you know." Taichi said lazily. "Always reading some difficult book. I think he's trying to absorb all there is to know about science before he turns fifteen."_

_End flashback_

There you had it. Everything he needed to know about his friends in a few sentences. Tai thought of it as odd that you can summarise human lives so short but he wasn't complaining. He'd hear the whole stories sooner or later.

After they found out he was back. Perhaps he would be able to break his own record.

"You ready?" Kari asked as they stood before the blue door of Mimi's hospital room. **"Don't know."**

"There is only one way to find out." Kari said as she moved her hand to the doorknob. Then an idea crossed her mind.

Her smile scared the crap out of Tai.

* * *

"Hey Mimi!" Kari said cheerfully as she walked into the room, hands behind her back. "Hey Kari! Nice of you to come visit." Mimi said, once again dressed in that awful hospital gown. "School still hasn't started?"

"Nah and it's Wednesday, so I would have come by anyway."

"Hello misses Takaishi." A young blue-haired girl sitting next to Mimi's bed said politely. "Hinata…what did I say about that? Just call me Kari."

"Okay Kari." Hinata said, she still found it weird to call a grownup by their first name. even if it were her father's friends.

"So have you been a good girl lately?" Kari asked. "She's been very good." Mimi answered for the child. "At least that's what daddy thinks, isn't it?" A mischievous smile graced both Mimi and Hinata's faces.

"If I didn't know any better I would think you were a bad influence on the girl." Kari said as her eyes took in the room. As always Mimi was hooked up to a life monitor and some IV stuck in her arm, slowly delivering some type of medication into her body.

Currently Tai was sweating bullets. Mimi, his crush was in a hospital bed, hooked to a life monitor. The constant, steady beeping was getting on his nerves!

Oh how he wanted to just yell at it to stop. But that would probably upset Mimi and scare off the little girl. Who was the girl anyway? Was she Mimi's daughter? Had she moved on and found herself some new guy?

Like Kari said, only one way to find out.

"Hey Mimi. Guess what." Kari suddenly said. "What?"

"It's fluffy, has a temper and you haven't seen it in years." Kari told her. Mimi rolled her eyes. "Kari, aren't we a little old for riddles?"

"Did you just refer to yourself as old?" Kari gasped. "Off course not!" Mimi shrieked. "And is it a rotten omelette?"

"Close enough." Kari said and pulled Tai out from behind her back. **"Hey."** Tai said softly, waving a paw at her.

Mimi's mouth fell open. It had been twenty-five years since she saw that puppy. And not a day had gone by without her thoughts wandering off to the boy she had a thing for.

Twenty-five years since she held that same puppy close to her.

And now he was back! She was sure that it was him! Twenty-five f'ing years and he was back!

Mimi did the one thing most people could do when confronted with something like this. Her eyes rolled back and she fainted.

**"Is she okay?"**

'teeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee'

Her life monitor stopped beeping and only produced a harsh, monotone sound. Kari immediately panicked. "Nurse! We need help here!"

Some nurse showed up, took one look at the device and banged it with her fist. Miraculously it started beeping again. "It does that sometimes. Don't worry, a new one is on the way."

Kari sweatdropped, Hinata was a bit in shock and Tai… well let's just say it's not healthy to think your girlfriend from earlier times died. And so he was knocked out as well.

Casualty count so far: 2

* * *

"Yo Joe!" Taichi said as he stepped into the blue-haired doctor's office. Joe was currently amusing himself with his PSP.(number god-knows-how-many)

"I'd prefer it if you call me doctor." Joe paused his game. "It shows a certain amount of respect."

"Since when do you respect anything?" Taichi asked as he sat down in an empty chair in front of Joe's desk. "Good point. So what brings you here?"

"I want to know about my uncle." Taichi said seriously.

"Last I heard of him he was stuck with his fellow Martians." Joe said as he looked out of the window, as if he expected Matt's ship to land any given time.

"No the other one. The one that turned into a fluffball." Taichi said, a bit annoyed at Joe's (read: the Author's) attempts at humour.

"Oh. That guy. Haven't seen him in twenty-five years." Joe said as he pushed his glasses back up. "What about him?"

"I want to know what he was like." Taichi stated. "What kind of person he was. You know stuff like that."

"Let's get this out of the way first. He was an idiot." Joe said, eyes shining with a hint of mischief. "But also a darn good leader and friend. Didn't you read your dad's books?"

"I'm getting to that." Taichi said, motioning Joe to continue. "Very well then. Like I said he was an idiot. But he was **our **idiot." Joe emphasised the 'our' in that sentence. "He was stubborn as hell and could find a ray of light in nearly every dark situation."

"Interesting." Taichi said half-hearted.

"Truly. He saved me from my drinking problem." Joe said. "Well, somewhat. He landed on my head when I claimed to stop drinking when I got hit by a meteor. Haven't touched a glass since then." Joe thought deeply about that. "Well mostly that is."

"Okay." Taichi already knew about the meteor-incident and Joe's drinking problem. But still, it was an impressive feat to do something like that just by hitting someone on the head.

"Then some stuff happened and we ended up saving the world. Again." Joe said, finishing his story rather quickly.

"So, that's it?" Taichi asked. "No epic story?"

"There is one but I don't feel like telling it entirely." Joe said, unpausing his game. "Besides I'm very busy."

"How nice of you to say that." Cuddy walked. "Oh crap, the boss." Joe whispered to Taichi. "It's time to go see one of your favourite patients." Cuddy said, handing him a file.

Moments later Joe stood in a room with an elderly man, discussing if it was a pimple or a tumour on the poor man's behind. Joe obviously chose the later.

"Come see Mimi when you're done, okay?" Taichi said to Joe before making himself scarce.

* * *

"What did I miss?" Taichi asked as he walked into Mimi's room. What he saw somewhat surprised him. Mimi was out cold, with his uncle on the bed with her and his mother sitting in a chair with a goofy smile on her face. "Apparently a lot." Taichi answered his own question.

"Taichi!" Said boy groaned as something with blue hair clung to his leg. "Hey Hinata. Let go off my leg."

"No." She answered.

"Damn fangirl." Taichi muttered under his breath. For some reason Hinata always latched on to him. No one knew why but they thought it had something to do with Joe reading TK's books to her.

"Okay Hinata, you can let go now." Kari said, trying her best not to laugh. "You embarrassed him enough for today."

"Fine." Hinata let go off Taichi's leg and sat back down on her seat. "Thanks. And what happened here?"

"Well… I thought it would be a good idea to surprise Mimi." Kari said, a small smile on her face. "Turns out it was actually a bad idea. Her heart monitor flat-lined and Tai fainted."

"But don't worry, she just fainted." Kari quickly said as she saw the shocked look on his face.

"What about the heart monitor then?" He asked, pointing at the thing that happily beeped at a steady pace.

"Apparently it's defective." Kari shrugged. "So, did you get the answers you wanted from Joe?"

"Not really." Taichi admitted. "He's rather vague about the details."

* * *

Tai slowly regained consciousness. The last thing he remembered was seeing his girlfriend, a loud noise and then everything turned black.

He opened his eyes slowly and what he saw nearly made his heart stop. Mimi's face was just a few inches away from his. For a second he feared she was dead, until he noticed her soft, steady breathing. He remembered that face. A quarter of a century had gone by but he'd never forget those features.

Mimi's eyes opened. She blinked a few times when she saw brown eyes looking into hers. They belonged to the puppy next to her. The one she knew as an old friend, an old crush, a love she never wanted to forget. She had waited a long time to see them again.

She blinked a few more times, to make sure she wasn't dreaming.

"It's been quite some time." She whispered. **"Indeed."** The puppy said softly. **"Way to long, if you ask me."**

"You never were the patient type." Mimi joked.

"**Hey!"**

"Oh look, they're awake." Kari said as she looked in the general direction of the yell. "Back amongst the living uncle?" Tai's annoying nephew asked.

Tai sat up and glared at his sister and her son. "Do you mind?"

* * *

Omake of sorts.

Meanwhile in TK's car.

The timer of Tai's nuclear device went off. Too bad for Tai he didn't get a warhead but the means to propel one into space.

The same time on Mars.

"Houston? We have a problem." Matt said as his little brother's car flew by them. With his brother still inside.

"I want one of those." Gabumon said as TK's rocket propelled car flew off into space.

* * *

Ta-da! Poor TK is currently orbiting through space. But he'll probably be back by next chapter. If the oxygen in his car lasts long enough.

Also: Tai and Mimi meet up again! Happy feelings for everyone! Well, except Joe, who is currently investigating some dude's behind.

Reviews.

Lord Pata: Well… Tai's got mad fuzzball powers. Let's keep it at that. And don't worry. TK will live. If he can hold his breath long enough…

Vigatus: There you go, and yes a rather big part but don't tell anyone else! 'is clueless'

Firehedgehog: like my grandfather used to say: who on earth wants a stable character? And I agree to that.

Martiny the one and only still: relax, Tai's getting rid off Taichi sooner or later. Probably later.

Princessjaded: glad you like it!

Super garurumon: Yeah, I know. I'm putting a lid on my jar full of plot bunnies. Or if anyone needs one, contact me!

Depthmon: I prefer applepie but that's probably because I'm from Belgium. There are apples everywhere! 'twitch-twitch'

anime25: Yes. Yes he is.

A.YamiYugi: Well, since TK touched his sister he has no other option. After all, he is Kari's big brother. And besides, Matt is on Mars, so what is he gonna do about? 'evil laugh'

WolfSummoner93: poor TK, lost forever in the cold, dead space. Until next chapter that is.

Takari4ever3012: Nah, but the lack of air will

Beth: There, happy? Two casualties and more coming soon.

R&R people, next time Gatomon and Patamon meet up with their adopted son. Oh boy…


	10. Virus

Ronald owns only the air that he breaths.

* * *

Spirits of Ages

Chapter 9

Joe was pleased. He got rid of the old man with the pimple on his behind and he was currently on his way to his favourite patient. Off course he preferred it when she wasn't here.

He hated the fact that she was here but he did prefer a friendly face over people's behinds every day.

He got to Mimi's room, supported on his cane and knocked on the door.

"Come in!" Another familiar voice answered. Joe opened the door and walked in. "Hey Kari." He said as he saw her.

"Daddy!" Hinata ran up to her father. "Hey princess, have you been a good girl today?"

"Yes." She said, though Joe could have sworn he saw something mischievous in her eyes.

"I don't know… somehow I find that hard to believe." Which was true, considering who she hung out with during the weekends and Wednesdays.

"Relax Joe, she's been good." Kari said. 'As far as I know.' She added mentally.

"Okay then, how's my favourite patient…"

Joe's eyes popped out of their sockets. "No way."

On the bed, next to Mimi's head laid a black puppy. One he instantly recognised. "So that's why you wanted to ask about your uncle, huh?" Taichi nodded.

"How did he end up here again?" Joe asked, keeping his voice a bit low as Mimi and Tai had fallen asleep.

"Funny story." Kari said. "Apparently Taichi here got his own uncle as his partner digimon."

Joe deadpanned.

"Okay… interesting development." He commented. "Anyone ask Gennai about this? I mean it must have happened for a reason, right?"

"I hope not." Kari answered, getting up from her seat. "I think we've all had it with saving things, right?" Kari said, before thinking that over a bit. "Except you off course."

"Off course." Joe said as he walked up to Mimi and Tai. He brought his cane up to bed level, supported himself by putting his hand against the wall and began poking Tai with the wooden cane.

**"Five more minutes…"** He muttered. "It's Tai alright." Joe said. "Hey wake up hairball!"

Tai's eyes shot open. **"He? What's going on?"** He looked up to see Joe standing over him. "Hello!"

Tai sweatdropped. **"Oh it's you Joe." **

"Twenty-five years and that's all you have to say?" Joe acted hurt.

Tai sighed. **"Okay fine. Hi Joe, it's been so long, how have you been? There, happy?"**

"Yes. And I've been fine. Somewhat that is." He motioned to his leg with his cane. "Haven't felt anything in this leg for three years."

"**What happened?"** Tai asked as he sat up, trying not to wake Mimi up. Joe just waved the question off. "That's for another time little man."

"**Who are you calling little!"** Tai yelled and did an attempt to attack Joe, only failing miserably as he dropped off the bed. **"Ouch."** He complained from the floor.

"Should have seen that coming." Kari said as she rubbed her forehead.

* * *

Tai got back to his feet after a minute or two and glared at Joe. "**So Joe, did you stay away from the booze? If not I will have to kill you."** Tai threatened, which was rather hard, the fact being that he was barely thirty centimetres tall and rather cute.

"Relax Tai. I stopped drinking….somewhat." Tai's eye developed a tick-mark above it. "**Then I'll have to somewhat kill you." **Tai's eyes burned brightly as he charged Joe again.

* * *

Quite some time and a lot of failed attacks later.

"Well we're off." Kari said. "Else they'll come chase us out like last time."

"**Awww. Do we have to go?"** Tai complained.

"Yes." Kari said. "Besides, they'll ban us from coming again if they find out that **you**'re here."

"**Why is that?"** Tai asked, apparently not aware of the fact that he was small, fluffy, looked like a dog and banned in most hospitals.

"Also a question." Joe started. "How is your 'relationship' going to work out?" He pointed at Mimi and Tai. "Cause I think this is still illegal here."

"**We eh…" **Joe was, a usual, right. He was currently a digimon. He had his champion form Lowemon but he probably couldn't maintain that, as he was linked to his nephew now. **"Dammed!"**

"Relax Tai." Mimi said to the pup. "We'll figure something out. Maybe Gennai knows something."

* * *

On the way home Tai started thinking.

"**Hey Kari?"**

"What is it?"

"**What's wrong with Mimi? I mean, she has to be in the hospital for some reason, right?"** He hadn't thought of asking it before, mostly because he was to nervous about seeing her again.

"Well… you know that virus I told you about? The one that reacted to stress?" Tai didn't like this at all. "It has no real name but they call it '21' because it broke out four years ago. (AN: I'm putting this in the year 2025. Much easier for me.) Mimi was one of those who were infected."

"**So she…" **Tai didn't know how to continue that sentence as he remembered what his sister told him about the disease. "She isn't in immediate danger." Kari reassured him. "She was only exposed to the minor form. She can life a normal life, as long as she doesn't overdo it, develop to much stress and goes to the hospital regularly for her medication."

"**I'm starting to dislike this future." **Tai said as they arrived back home. **"Doesn't Gennai have a time machine or anything?"**

"Ask him tomorrow evening." Taichi said once they were inside the house. "Me, Heero and Joni are going to the Digital World then."

"**Okay." **Tai said. He wasn't really looking forward to spending time with his nephew or his insane girlfriend but at least he'd be able to go and see Gennai. Perhaps he knew how to get away from the copycat.

* * *

'_Bang!'_

"What the hell was that?"

The sound came from outside. Moments after it the door was unlocked and TK walked in. "TK? What happened to you?" Kari pointed at the man, currently covered in minor burns, some strange green stuff and god knows what else, that was her husband.

"Trust me, you don't want to know. All I'm saying is that I have new inspiration for my book!"

"**Damn, he survived."**Tai scowled. He then pulled a notebook and a pen out of nowhere.

"**Next time, more explosives." **With the minimal manoeuvrability he had in his paws he wrote that down. **"Maybe some gasoline will help too."**

TK's eye twitched. "Does that voice belong to who I think it does?"

Kari grinned but didn't say anything.

TK marched over to the living room and picked the puppy up by the scruff of his neck, before dangling him in front of his face.

"**What?" **Tai asked cutely, trying to hide the notebook behind his back. TK took it with his other hand.

"You can't be him, can you?" TK was practically sure it was Tai. That smile of his all but confirmed it. He opened the notebook.

'Killing and/or horribly maiming your brother in law in ten easy steps.' Was the title.

'Written by Tai Kamiya.' Stood as the author.

TK's eye twitched some more. "Long time no see. Tai."

"**The same here TK." **Tai's smile faded. **"What did I tell you about touching my sister?"**

"Not to do so."

"**Actually I said that I'd run you through ****the sides with my spear if you did." **Tai corrected.

TK smiled. "But since you weren't around…" TK let that sentence hang and put the pup down again, dropping him a bit harder then you'd normally do to an animal his size.

Tai responded by biting down on TK's leg.

"So…what's the story?" TK asked his wife, ignoring the puppy trying to bite his leg with those pathetically dull teeth.

"We're stuck with him." Kari said. "Apparently Tai is Taichi's partner digimon. And he's Gatomon and Patamon's adopted son, remember?"

"That does explain why he tried to bite me every time I tried to pet him on the head." TK mused, thinking about all the times Tai tried to bite off a finger.

"I told you he didn't like you." Taichi supplied lazily from the couch. "hor honce we hahee." Tai muttered, teeth still clenched on TK's leg.

"Listen dearest brother in law." TK started, looking down at the puppy. "You'd best let go now, because I'm getting myself some other clothes. Space-monster snot isn't something I like on me, you understand?"

Tai immediately let go and gagged a few times. "Kind of tastes like mom's cooking."

"What was that about space-monsters?" Kari asked, looking wearily at her husband. "Nothing!" He said immediately. "I'll tell you about it later."

* * *

"We're home!" A voice announced. Patamon flew in through the window, with Gatomon not far behind him.

Tai's eye twitched much like TK's before.

"Hey son." Patamon said as he flew into the living room. "Wow, you've gotten big."

"What are you talking…" Gatomon started as she walked into the living room, only to see Tai sitting on the couch.

"They grow up so fast." Patamon commented. "One day they're fresh level, the next they're destroying worlds as a mega level." A tear formed at his eye. "Beautiful in a way."

Tai was incredibly annoyed by his adoptive parents. He was about to voice his complaints as Gatomon charged him and wrapped him in a bone crushing hug. "He's so cute!"

"Mmmphh!!" Tai couldn't breath as he was smothered by Gatomon.

"So son." Patamon waited till his son was able to breathe again. "What's your name, as we never got around to naming you."

"**My name… is TAI!!"**

Patamon and Gatomon deadpanned.

"You can't be serious." Patamon said once he regained his ability to do so.

Gatomon remained in a shocked state for a while. Before bursting out in laughter. "Good one, but seriously. You're not supposed to lie to your mother. Actually, you're not supposed to lie, at all!"

If only Tai had a hammer right now. And opposable thumbs, so he could wield it.

"**I am Tai." **The digimon repeated. **"And be glad I don't have my spear right now."**

Patamon and Gatomon deadpanned again. They had seen what old Tai could do with that spear of his. More so, how could he know about this? Unless...

"So, you're back?" Gatomon asked. **"F yeah." **Gatomon fainted."Son, you're not supposed to swear, it upsets your mother." Patamon joked before heading over to the unconscious form of his beloved.

"**You can stop the whole parenting thing now." **Tai said. **"It annoys me."**

"I know." Patamon said happily. "I'm just glad to see you again."

"**Same here." **Tai replied. He and Patamon were somewhat friends before, mostly because of Patamon's attempts at getting to his sister's digimon.

"We thought you'd never get back." Patamon continued. "You got deleted fighting Legionmon after all. That thing was worth more then thousands upon thousand of digimon." The blob wannabe digimon had tried and succeeded in absorbing almost every digimon in his path.

"**That was some battle." **Tai said as he did an attempt to help bring Gatomon to the couch. Taichi was there as well but he was half-asleep on the couch, so he wasn't much help.

"**Yo hairball!" **Tai yelled. "Eh what?" Taichi looked around, trying to find where the voice came from. **"Down here."**

Taichi looked down to see his partner digimon/uncle, his other uncle and his unconscious aunt. "Did I miss something?"

"We call it the Tai-syndrome." Patamon said. "Usually when someone discovers that Tai is either alive again or back in this case, they faint." He thought for a second. "Most of them that is."Patamon quickly added.

"So this happened before?" Taichi asked as he picked up his aunt Gato.

"Oh yeah." Patamon said. "Lets see there was the first time, twenty-five years ago." Patamon thought deeply. It had been quite some time since the last time the Tai-syndrome struck.

"I think about four people fainted back then."

"**Five." **Tai said, clearly annoyed**. "That damn bet cost me five dollars."**

"Who won?" Taichi asked, actually curious about that ancient history. **"Phoenix." **Tai stated. **"Damn dog. What ever happened to him?"**

"Kari adopted him." Patamon answered. " He died quite some time ago but he had a good life."

Patamon smiled as an idea formed in his mind. "How many casualties till now?" Patamon asked, a mischievous look in his eyes. **"Three. Me, Mimi and Gatomon."**

"Anyone interested in placing a bet?" Patamon grinned.

* * *

Coming soon: TK's amazing voyage! A one-shot, possibly two-shot sidestory about what happened to TK on his trip through the galaxy.

Also, don't kill me for almost killing Mimi. I needed it for the story to work. 'Gets hit by stick thrown by Mimi fan.'

And: DAMN! already 110 reviews! You guys are the awesomeness!

Reviews

Lord Pata: I'll tell you when the side-story's on, okay?

WolfSummoner93**: **indeed, poor Tai and thanks.

Princessjaded: that will be told sooner or later ;)

Beth: She is. She's safe right now because she's unconscious but when she's back amongst the living? Well…

Super garurumon: I only do it because I care. 'laughs evilly' Also, I know exactly what to do about that problem. 'Is actually clueless.'

Depthmon: Indeed we do, that's probably the only thing we're known for. Also: you poor thing! Four more years? That sucks. I've been enjoying the beverage of the gods since I was sixteen.

Vigatus: Woot! Tintin! In Belgium we call him Kuifje

Firehedgehog: Indeed, he's doomed. 'fetches dictionary to look up stable'

Martiny the one and only still: I'll blow him up at the end of the fic, just for you, okay? 'is seen placing TNT on Taichi.'

Minwolf: He will. Just read TK's amazing voyage when I put it up.

anime25: yeah he lives. But Tai will not give up! And the main rule of digimon fanfic writers is: either torture Tai, kill Tai, both or turn him into something else. Just follow that rule and anyone can write a good fic

A.YamiYugi: Don't worry, more people will faint. They always do.

Takari4ever3012: He lives, don't worry.

Iceclaw of WindClan: Don't worry, I rarely kill main characters, except Tai off course.

R&R please!


	11. Fear the cat

Ronald still doesn't own anything!

* * *

Spirits of Ages

Chapter 10

Another day, some new torture. That is the life of Tai, always has been, always will be. (because I say so!)

"I still say you look cute with them!" Gatomon yelled as she ran after her 'son' with a red ribbon in hand.

"**Leave me alone!" **Tai yelled. Apparently Gatomon had taken it rather well. The fact that her adoptive son was actually her adoptive brother didn't seem to matter to her once she regained consciousness.

"Come back to momma!" Gatomon yelled. This, off course freaked Tai out even more. **"Save me BlackAgumon!"**

Said egg still didn't budge an inch. It was currently stationed in the living room and as such safe from Tai's antics with Gatomon. He hoped he'd be able to escape her in the kitchen. Big mistake.

"Gotcha!" Gatomon yelled and made a leap at Tai, grabbing him at the stubby little legs he had. **"Aaaaaaaaahhhh!!!" **This off course didn't stop him as he did one last desperate attempt to get away.

Kari looked up from her magazine, which she was currently reading in the living room. "Just like old times." She said to the egg, who didn't respond.

Kari went back to her reading as she heard a crash in the kitchen.

Moments later a smiling Gatomon walked out with a scowling Tai in her arms. A big red ribbon tied around his left ear. **"I hate you."**

"Aaww. That makes me so sad." Gatomon said, a spiteful tone in her voice accompanied by a similar look in her eyes. "Now mommy's going to have to punish you."

"**Aaaaaaahhhh!!" **Tai yelled as Gatomon carried him away, trying his best to get away from her iron grip.

"Okay, so maybe not just like old times." Kari said as she turned to the next page, not even looking up at her brother's misery.

* * *

"You ready to go?" The copy asked once he came back from school. **"Yes! Anything, just get me the hell out of here!!!" **Tai yelled, panic clear in his eyes.

"You okay man?" Taichi asked, looking down at the quivering pile of fur.

"**I'm fine, just get me out of here!"** Tai yelled at his nephew.

"Okay, okay, keep you pants on." Taichi said, holding his hands up in defence. "Just need to tell mom we're gone, okay?"

"**Whatever, just hurry up, before SHE comes back." **Tai looked around warily.

Taichi popped his head into the kitchen. "Hey mom, bye mom!" He yelled quickly. "We're off."

"Be careful, okay?" Kari said back. "And Tai? Try took keep him out of trouble, okay?"

"Will **do!" **Both of them said at the same time, the one more annoyed then the other.

"Hey, she was talking to me!"

"**No, she was talking to me!"**

"Shouldn't you get going? Gatomon will get back soon." Tai paled. **"Move it copycat!" **With that said Tai ran off to Taichi's room.

"Did I miss something?" Taichi asked, confusion clear on his face.

"Trust me, you don't want to know." Kari said in her 'Mother-knows-best' voice.

* * *

Five minutes later.

"Ready?" Taichi asked as he aimed his digivice at the screen. **"I've done this before kid." **Tai said without even casting a glance at the boy.

A flash of light later and they were gone.

"**The one thing I like about being a digimon is this."**

Taichi was currently on the ground, face-first in the dirt, with a newly evolved DemiSphinxmon sitting next to him. **"It's not much but still better then earlier." **Tai commented on his paws. At least in this form he'd be able to move at normal speeds.

"Well, you look a lot less like a fuzzball now." Taichi said as he picked himself up. "More like a dog though."

"**Wow, did you figure that out all by yourself?" **Tai asked, mock surprise clear in his voice.

"Yeah I did…" It took Taichi a few seconds to realise he had been insulted. "HEY!"

* * *

"**So where are you supposed to meet those other brats?" **Tai asked as he made his way through the forest. He was still close enough to the ground to not get hit by branches. Taichi on the other hand…

"Ouch!" A branch smacked against his face. "Those 'brats' as you call them are my friends. And we're supposed to meet them at the river near Primary Village. You know, at the bridge"

"**Why not at the village itself?"**

"Because Joni would probably go into shock again." Taichi answered, causing his uncle to sweatdrop.

"**Okay…" **That was one weird girl.

"Besides, I doubt we'd find the old man there." Taichi said, dodging another branch.

"**True. As we used to say: we don't find Gennai, he finds us."**

* * *

"Hey uncle." Taichi suddenly said as they came to a clearing. "Do you know what the hell that thing is?" Taichi pointed at the red sphere in the distance.

"**Oh that thing." **Tai allowed a smile to form on his canine muzzle. **"That was a soulstone, used in the battle against Legionmon."**

"A what?"

Tai rolled his eyes. **"A soulstone, my foolish nephew. It's a kind of gem that can store great amounts of energy."**

"Cool." Taichi answered. "Also: who was Legionmon? I still don't know who that was."

Tai sighed. Why couldn't anyone else teach this kid history? **"Legionmon was…" **He sought for the right words.

"**He was evil. That's the only way to put it. Plain evil. He was all of our enemies from before, mixed in one." **Tai scowled. **"It called itself Orochimon first though. After absorbing nearly every digimon on the island and around it, it became Legionmon."**

"**Me, your parents and our friends fought it." **Tai said, remembering that day clearly. After all, to him it felt like it was only a few months ago. **"Me and BlackAgumon sacrificed ourselves to defeat it."**

"Damn." Taichi said as the bridge came in sight. "You owe me the whole story later, okay?" Taichi looked at his uncle. **"Fine…" **Tai was actually glad to be able to tell his heroic tale to someone, even if it was just his nephew. He shook his head. **'I'm starting to feel like some old veteran, telling war stories.'**

* * *

"You're late!" Joni yelled out. "I thought you got eaten by a digimon or something like that." Heero said, getting up from his seat at the bridge.

"**Nah, what on earth would eat something like him?" **Tai said, motioning his head to the giant mass of hair.

"Good point." Heero said as he looked at the digimon. "Wait a minute… Fuzzball? Is that you?"

"**Do I look like a pile of fuzz?" **Tai asked, glaring at the teen. "Eh not really."

"**Then you should know that that isn't my name!" **Tai realy hates that nickname you know.

"Eh guys, this is my digimon partner. He evolved yesterday and turned into this when we entered the Digital World." Taichi explained, trying to think of how they were going to handle the whole 'he's my uncle' thing.

"Cool!" Joni yelled out. "He looks like a wolf now!" She crouched down and looked at Tai.

"More like a mutt in my opinion." Taichi said. **"Hey shut it copycat!"**

"So what's your name?" Joni asked. **"My name is Tai. Remember it well."**

"Eh… why do you have the same name as him?" Heero asked as he pointed at Taichi.

"Yeah about that… he'smyuncle." Taichi blurted out.

Twin sounds of "What?" Were heard.

Taichi took a deep breath. "I said he's my uncle. I don't know the full story but apparently he's a digimon and currently my partner digimon."

"**Against my will." **Tai said, adding his two cents on the subject.

Joni and Heero looked at each other, then at Taichi, then Tai and at each other again. "You knock him out, I call the mental hospital." She whispered.

"Very funny." Taichi said. **"I'll knock him out!" **Tai offered.

* * *

Some time and convincing later.

"Okay, I still think it's weird though." Heero said. "I mean it just doesn't make sense."

"**Open your eyes kid. Meat grows on fields, skeletons walk around and I'm pretty sure I just saw a tree eat a traffic plate." **Tai responded.

"Good point." Heero admitted.

* * *

"Uncles and time paradoxes aside, where are you digimon? It's been quite some time since you got the eggs, right?" Taichi asked. He was rather curious about what digimon they had.

"They're here somewhere…" Joni said. "They said they'd be back soon."

"**Let me guess. They were hungry and went to look for food?" **Tai asked. Heero nodded. **"Then I think we'd better go look for them. Else we'll be here till midnight."**

* * *

"Who are your digimon anyway?" Taichi asked. "Might be handy to know what we're looking for."

Smoke was suddenly visible from within the forest. "Eh… I think we found them." Joni sweatdropped.

"Aahh! Put it out put it out!" Gotsumon, a stone-type digimon yelled as he ran around with his right arm on fire. "How? I have no idea how this even happened!" Candlemon yelled back.

"**So these are your digimon?" **A voice suddenly said. "Who's there?" Gotsumon asked, all of a sudden ignoring the fact that his arm was on fire.

"Relax Gotsumon, he's with us." Heero said as he walked out from between the trees. "How did you catch on fire?"

"Her fault." Gotsumon pointed at Candlemon, who just stuck her tongue out at him. "No, I mean: HOW? You're made of rock. Rock doesn't burn."

Gotsumon held his burning arm to his chin in thought. "Good point."

Heero smacked his forehead with his hand.

"**Wow. That guy is even denser then you." **Tai said to his nephew. "Yeah you're-damnit!!" Taichi grumbled as his uncle insulted him again.

* * *

"Okay, Gotsumon, Candlemon, this is Taichi and Tai." Joni said to the two rookies. "Yo." Taichi lifted a hand in greeting.

"Wow! Nice to meet you!" Gotsumon yelled as he ran to Tai and picked up one of his paws and shook it. **"Eh the same." **Tai answered, hoping that his leg wouldn't be ripped out of its socket by the overeager rookie.

"Hi." Candlemon said as she hoped over to him. "I'm Candlemon, pleased to meet you." Tai immediately noticed that she was rather shy. As in the complete opposite of Joni. But then again, that was the case with most digimon. Joe and Gomamon for example.

"**The same." **Tai said again before trying to free his paw from Gotsumon's death grip.

"I have a question." Taichi suddenly said. "How come they are already at rookie level and you took nearly a month?"

"**I'm special." **Tai answered, accompanied by some wiggling of his eyebrows.

* * *

"So… why are we here anyway?" Joni suddenly asked. They had begun walking again, steering clear from the Primary Village. "We're looking for old man Gennai. The problem is, we have no idea where he is." Taichi answered.

"At moments like these I feel like slapping some sense into you." Joni threatened. "I mean, we're looking for someone while you don't even know where to look."

"**I agree on the slapping thing. I'll pin him down****, you hit him." **Tai offered. "Thanks for the offer but I think we'd break his tiny brain if we did so." Joni answered with a smile on her face. That also earned her a one-way ticket off of Tai's deathlist, and possibly onto Taichi's deathlist, right below his uncle's name.

* * *

I know it's short but I've been rather busy lately…

Anyway, what do you think of their digimon?

Princessjaded: A few chapters ago Kari told him about some idiots trying to create a virus that was fuelled by stress, ordinary stress. I'll probably put the details in later though.

Vigatus: Indeed, can't wait till that part and indeed, Tai will be giving the orders, not taking them.

Lord Pata: Don't worry,all will be clear once TK's fantastic voyage is on ^^ Also, what did you think of Gatomon this chapter?

Martiny the one and only still: WTF remember kids, sugar is bad! (yeah right!) Sounds like you had fun there ^^

WolfSummoner93: indeed poor TK… Can't say for sure if he'll make it till the end of the fic ;)

Super garurumon: might take a while though… also: sealing technique! Review seal jutsu!! (sorry, had an overdose of Naruto)

Firehedgehog: glad to hear it

anime25: Onward young grasshopper, there is nothing more I can teach you 'bows'

: the same as I'm still working on that.

Beth: indeed, though it may be a few chapters before all of them show up

Depthmon: relax, I hate stereotypes. Ever seen or heard of the Belgium stereotype? It describes us to be lowly peasants that can't count to three and that our main diet exists out of French fries and beer. Also the first time I had alcohol was hilarious. I was like 7-8 years old and got a hold of something red and sweet, can't remember what it was exactly. One glass and down I went :)

Fruitloop Trooper: perhaps…

Takari4ever3012: don't worry he won't die cough 'often!!' cough

R&R people!


	12. Relax, the world is safe

Ronald still owns nothing, just this partly finished electrical project thingy!

* * *

Spirits of Ages

Chapter 11

"So... is it always this hard to find that old man?" Heero, the resident nerd, asked. After all, they'd been walking around for quite some time now. And while the Digital World was beautiful by day, he had no intention of finding out if the same was true for he night.

"**Damn Gennai." **The original Tai grumbled.** "Never around when you need him. And when he's around he's almost useless."**

"That's Gennai for ya." Taichi said happily.

"Odd." Joni said. "In the books Gennai was always portrayed as a wise mentor to you all." She continued.

"**Oh he is all that." **Tai answered.** "But he's also gives out barely any information, he's annoying and always shows up after the big apocalyptic battle for the world is fought."**

"Don't forget I also make the worst 'modem' jokes." Gennai said as he appeared out of nowhere. **"Yeah, that too!"**

Years may have gone by, but Tai's processing speed hadn't been improved by the years. Mostly because he was in a form of stasis.

"**Damnit Gennai!"**

The old man gave a good laugh at this. "Ah I still got it." He said smugly and turned his closed eyes to Tai. "It's been quite a while young one."

"**Apparently twenty-five years. But you still don't look a day over one hundred and five Gennai." **Tai looked up at the old man.** "But a question first, is it the real you or a hologram?"**

"Real me." Gennai answered. "If I recall correctly your friend Baromon blew up my last hologram projector in this part of File Island."

"**Actually we just ****damaged it a bit. It still worked last time." **

"Could be but first things first." Gennai said, waving the topic of his projectors away. "I haven't thanked you yet."

"For what?" Joni suddenly asked. She had been a bit intimidated by Gennai's presence but quickly got over it.

"Tai here saved the world by sacrificing himself." Gennai answered. "It takes a lot of courage to do that."

"**Or as Matt would call it: stupidity." **Tai winked an eye. "Same difference." Taichi said.

"When did all of this happen?" Candlemon asked. **"Twenty-five years ago." **Tai answered as he faced the two other rookie level digimon. **"Me and my friend BlackAgumon sacrificed ourselves to blow up Legionmon, a huge threat to the Digital World."**

At this Gotsumon decided that this digimon was worthy of worship and fanboyism and proceeded to fall to his knees. "Oh mighty Taimon!" He bowed. "We are not worthy!" he repeated that a few times before he got bonked on the head by Candlemon, who instantly began to apologise for doing so.

'**And to think I'm stuck working with these mon.' **Tai thought as Gotsumon somehow caught on fire again.

* * *

After Gotsumon's flames got extinguished Tai decided that it was time to interrogate the old man.

"**So Gennai... Mind explaining this?" **Tai looked up at the old man, who frowned a bit. "Explain what?" He asked, allowing a small smile to creep on his face.

"**That." **Taipointed a paw at his 'favourite' nephew. **"How the hell did I get teamed up with someone like him?"**

"Same question." Taichi said. "Can't I get a cooler partner? You know, one that spits acid or breathes fire?"

Tai glared at his nephew. **"Don't think I'm glad with this arrangement. I'd dump you near the first Tyrannomon nest if I could." **Tai said. **"But then your mother would kill me."**

This arguing went on for a while, allowing bystanders to enjoy the show.

"Wow." Joni said. "Almost the same, aren't they?" Heero asked.

"**Shut **up!" both Tai's yelled at the same time.

In the end the two of them decided to glare at each other some more and allow Gennai to answer the question.

* * *

"If the two of you are done arguing." Gennai looked hopeful. The two of them remained quiet. "Very well. The reason you, Tai, got partnered with your own nephew..."

Gennai scratched his chin.

"Actually, I have no idea why this happened."

Both Tai and Taichi face vaulted.

"Or..." Gennai said. "Perhaps fate still has a few surprises for you Tai."

Tai's eye twitched. **"Oh no! No more fate! No more saving the damn world! I've saved the world like three times! Can't a guy get a break?"**

Gennai, Taichi, Heero, Joni, Gotsumon and Candlemon sweatdropped.

"I'm just kidding you know?" Gennai laughed. "It's just a coincidence."

"**You sure?" **Tai asked, eying the elderly man suspiciously. He was up to something, he could feel it.

"Nope." Gennai answered. "But I'll let you know when something strange happens, okay?"

"**Hell no! Contact someone else then." **Tai scoffed.

Gennai suddenly burst into laughter. "Not to worry young one."The old man told him the truth for once. "As far as I know there's nothing wrong with the Digital or the Human world."

"**It'd better stay that way too." **Tai answered. He was tired of saving the world. But at least now he was sure that he'd be able to spend the rest of his days normally. Or as normal as it could get, being a dog-like shape shifting digital entity.

Oh how wrong he was. As always...

A voice. No. Not one, but a hundred that spoke as one echoed through an underground cave.

"Soon... Soon we will have our revenge!"

Like I said, always...

Tai shivered for a second. **"Anyone else feel that?"**

"Feel what?" Taichi asked.

"**An ominous feeling... like something bad is about to happen." **Tai said, looking up to the sky, where the sun was about to set.

"Dad must be cooking his famous casserole." Taichi said, as if it were the worst thing in the world.

"**No..." **Tai eyed his nephew weirdly.** "I doubt it meant that. TK's cooking isn't that bad, is it?"**

"You'll see." Taichi grimaced.

"Shouldn't we be getting home?" Heero asked, looking at his watch. "It's getting late. And I'd rather leave now before Gotsumon catches on fire again."

"I just can't help it!" The rock Digimon whined.

"Sure you can't." Joni said as she rolled her eyes, half expecting the tiny golem to catch on fire again, for no apparent reason.

* * *

"**Okay then, self combusting digimon set aside, can we get going?" **Tai asked. He'd never admit it, but he was getting tired. After all, he hadn't had diner yet and since he was a digimon, he couldn't function all that well without it.

After saying their goodbyes to Gennai the 'team' left for the real world.

"Ouch." Taichi groaned as he landed on the floor of his bedroom. His uncle was just sitting next to him, not a scratch on him.

"You've got to tell me how you do that." Taichi said as he got up again and dusted his clothes off.

"**Told you, one of the perks of being a digimon." **Tai said as he walked to the door. He was actually able to walk at a rather normal pace. Mostly because of the fact that he was still DemiShinxmon.

"**At least now I'm safe from you aunt." **Tai grinned his canine grin.

"She's still gonna go after you." Taichi said smugly. After all, seeing his uncle's pain/embarrassment always made his day.

"**You'll see shorty." **Tai said.** "You'll see.**"

"Who are you calling short?!? You barely reach to my knees!" Taichi yelled at his uncle, who just snickered.

* * *

"They're back." Kari said to her husband, who was currently slaving away at the stove, cooking up some evil brew. Or a casserole, same difference really. "Told you you'd be able to tell when they get back."

"You're right about that. Their bickering can be heard throughout the entire house." TK told her as he tried to figure out what the hell was up with his attempt at cuisine. It shouldn't be green, should it?

"So when are we telling the rest of the team about him?"

They had been discussing it for a while now, as their leader had been back for some time.

"Next week, Saturday evening. I've got a small thing planned for then." Kari smiled.

"Now that I think of it, who of us already know?" TK wasn't sure. He knew that the two of them knew the truth and Mimi, she was bound to know as she and Tai had a somewhat thing back then.

"Only Mimi and Joe. The rest are still oblivious. But I think we should tell Izzy as well. We'll need his help for something." She answered. "And quiet now, they're coming in."

True to Kari's word her son and brother walked into the room, still in discussion.

"I'm at a reasonable height for my age!" Taichi yelled at his doglike family member.

Tai just rolled his eyes. **"Then people must have been shrinking since my time."**

"Oh shut it mutt!" Taichi yelled, not being able to think of any witty remarks.

"**Real original tiny."**

"It appears they've gotten down to calling each other childish names." Kari said as the two Tai's ignored her.

"Just like a real family." TK said, looking up from his cooking for a second.

All he saw though was his son glaring. An evil look that was directed right at his brother in law.

TK could see the wheels in Taichi's head turning. He instantely realised something was about to go wrong, big time.

"Aunt Gato!" Taichi yelled from the top of his lungs. "We're home!" The brat grinned like the Cheshire cat as he saw the panic on his uncle's face. Who knew a dog's eyes could pop out of their sockets that far?

But then something else happened. Tai just relaxed as he remembered an important thing. Gatomon chose that same moment to charge into the room and grab Tai from behind.

"Oh Tai! How you've grown!" She commented on the rookie level digimon she held in the air.

Taichi laughed. This was hilarious!

That was, until his uncle suddenly melted into black smoke.

Gatomon nearly fell over as she lost her balance due to the sudden disappearance of her 'son'

"Did he... did he just explode?" Taichi asked, eying the smoke with a somewhat panicky look on his face. He hated the dog but didn't want him to disappear like that either.

"Nah." TK responded as the black smoke floated away, more specifically towards the living room. "He used to do that all the time."

Gatomon sighed. "I hate it when he does that." She said as she stood up again. Her blue eyes turned cold and serious. "The hunt is on." She said dangerously as she chased after the cloud of smoke.

"Okay." Taichi said, not knowing what to make of what had just happened. "Does that happen often?"

"Not really. Off course your uncle did manage to get under Gatomon's skin rather easily back when we were young." Kari answered her son, remembering the good times.

Taichi could totally get that. After all, he did the same rather often. "Still, there's something a bit off on him though. He acts more like a kid then a forty year old geezer."

"Tai was still a teenager when he was turned into a digimon." Kari said. "And being a digimon made him a lot more childish too." She knew for sure that if Tai were in the room with her, he'd respond with something along the lines of 'you're mean' or 'am not!'

* * *

Meanwhile Tai was applauding himself. He had escaped the clutches of his adopted 'mother' and was floating around, not a care in the world. Not that being an amorphous cloud of dust particles had any reasons to worry about anything.

"Rawr!" A cry that scared the crap out of Tai the cloud of smoke, making him lose his focus. Losing his focus meant that he wouldn't be able to maintain his current form. Hanging near the ceiling at that time didn't help his case either.

"Ouch." Tai grumbled as he landed on the couch. He could've had worse landing spots though. The floor for example. Or that pissed of feline with the sharp claws. Both of them would make rather bad landing spots.

"Trying to get away from momma again, are you?" Tai started to shake as he stared at the cat digimon suddenly sitting in front of him on the couch. "We can't have that, can we?" Gatomon was taking this whole motherhood way too serious in his opinion.

"**Can't we solve this peacefully?" **Tai smiled a nervous smile, hoping that it might mellow Gatomon out a bit.

"No." She said, coming closer. And closer...

Tai started to sweat. **'Well. It's time to be a man and stand up to her.' **He thought as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Gatomon's face suddenly appeared, barely a centimetre from his own face as he opened his eyes again. The way she stared at him made him think things through a few times.

He decided that it was actually more like time to act like the rookie he was and get the hell away from the scary champion level.

"Get back here Tai!" Gatomon yelled as she swiped at the smoke, sending it flying higher and higher and back towards the kitchen.

Gatomon smirked a bit. She wasn't really trying to hurt her son. 'He just needed to be disciplined a bit.' She thought as she ran after the elusive digimon.

* * *

Said digimon floated at top speeds away from the crazy digi-mom. Doing so he floated towards the smoke detector TK had installed somewhere in the kitchen. With him in the kitchen you needed to be careful.

After all, we're talking about the man who managed to set fire to cornflakes. (AN: been there, done that)

'Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep'

The alarm sounded, causing one digimon in another part of the house to wake up, yawn, stretch and get up to do his duty.

Patamon flew into the kitchen, not even bothering to look for the cause of the fire, as he had done this so many times before. He flew over to the sink, put a bucket under it and waited for it to fill up.

"Eh Patamon? Buddy, there's no fire." TK tried but he got a bucket of water over him anyway. "You saying something TK?" Patamon asked as he snapped out of his automated trance. Stuff like this happened weekly and thus Patamon did it on autopilot. He hears the beeping, gets water and throws it at whatever TK set on fire.

He noticed that TK was currently soaked and glaring at him. "It wasn't even burning yet." TK said and pointed at his cooking.

"What set off the alarm then?" Patamon asked. "He did." TK pointed at the now corporeal again Tai, who was laughing at his predicament.

His son and wife were no different. Taichi was rolling around on he floor and Kari let out a few giggles, which she failed to suppress.

"Awkward." Patamon said as he landed on his seat.

"**But funny as hell!" **Tai yelled, not noticing the eerie shadow that creped close to him, holding the same bucket Patamon used to 'extinguish' TK.

"Gotcha!" Gatomon yelled and dumped the remaining contents of the bucket on Tai, soaking him with cold water.

"Oh dear." Gatomon said as Tai started to shiver from the cold water. "You're a mess! Let's get you cleaned up!" She fell back in her motherly role and picked up the rookie.

"Save some casserole for us!" Gatomon yelled as she rushed off with Tai in her arms, who mouthed silently the words **'help me!'**

"Was she always this scary?" Taichi asked. "Yes." Both Kari and Patamon answered at the same time.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!"

* * *

Currently at 249,209,300 km from earth.

"Did you hear that?" Gabumon asked. "Hear what?" Matt responded. "Probably nothing." Gabumon said as he shook his head. "Must have been my imagination." He told himself.

"There we go." Gatomon said. "All clean." Tai was currently in the bathtub, covered in bubbles and plotting revenge.

* * *

Great, now we have two avengers. And I'm itching for a battle scene! But I couldn't fit it into this chapter. Maybe next one.

Yay! Update! Took me quite some time to get to this and my final project didn't help much. As you know I'll be updating less frequent but I'll try to get some writing in when I have some time!

Reviews

Depthmon: glad you like it ^^ and I hate that stereotype by the way, we Belgium people are intelligent damnit! We don't survive on French fries alone and we WILL take over the world! Oops…said to much.

Firehedgehog: Indeed, poor not-Tai.

PrincessJaded: I think there will be even more mental scarring in the future. Matt and Sora will be in soon and I do plan on making this as long as SoD, if I have enough inspiration that is.

Lord Pata: Nah probably won't happen. After all, Gatomon already has her paws full on one son ^^ And TK is safe. For now.

WolfSummoner93: BlackAgumon will be back soon, maybe next chapter, not sure yet.

Martiny the one and only still: 'gets tranquiliser gun, points and fires dart' There we go. 'Sees Martiny run around some more' Or not.

: Indeed, nothing can save Tai from momma Gatomon!

anime25: Nah they don't hate each other. They just share really deep feelings of loathing, dislike, annoyance and abhorrence at each other.

Takari4ever3012: No particular reason actually. I was looking for a fire digimon for Joni, so I chose Candlemon for her. Heero was harder but eventually I decided on Gotsumon, because he can become Monocromon, one of my favorite champion levels.

digiwriter1392: Will do!

R&R people!


	13. Old Friends

Ronald still doesn't own digimon...

Spirits of Ages

Chapter 12

* * *

"It's been quite some time Gennai." A massive form spoke. To most normal people it would have seemed menacing, threatening even. Luckily Gennai isn't very normal.

"It has been. How come you never respond to our e-mail chess game?" Gennai asked.

"Just thinking my move through." AncientSphinxmon said as he looked down at the old man. "I can't seem to find a way to move without you putting an end to the game the next turn."

"You're just a sore loser, aren't you?" Gennai stared up, not to his friend but to the moon. It was moving over, so that the sun may take its place.

"Perhaps." AncientSphinxmon's voice contained trace amounts of amusement.

"You can feel it too." Gennai said all of a sudden. "Can't you?"

"I wish I wasn't able to." AncientSphinxmon frowned behind his faceplate. "But yes. You can feel it on the wind. In the way the water flows."

"Legionmon." Gennai's voice was weak. He should have known better. Evil always tended to resurface sooner or later. 'But why couldn't it have been later?' He thought.

AncientSphinxmon spoke as if he had read Gennai's mind. "Creatures like that just don't stay gone forever."

"Too bad actually." Gennai said. "We'll probably have to notify the digidestined. They need to know."

"No." AncientSphinxmon shook his head. "Not yet at least. I can sense its presence but weakly. Legionmon is barely even alive. It can take thousands of years before he ever reaches the amount of strength he had back then."

"Shouldn't we take care of the problem now then?" Gennai frowned. "Later we might not stand a chance."

"We wouldn't be able to find it anyway. Legionmon is to weak to fight right now and he knows it." AncientSphinxmon almost smiled at that thought. "He won't come out till he's ready. So no sense in disrupting the digidestined's lives for a threat that probably won't even affect their great-great-grandchildren."

"I hope you're right my friend." Gennai said, looking over the shattered remains of what was once Infinity mountain. "Aren't I always right?" AncientSphinxmon suddenly sounded a lot more cheerful.

"No." Gennai said flat out.

"And besides, if Legionmon were to show its ugly head around here again my 'son' will take care of him again." AncientSphinxmon said. Off course he knew Tai was back. You don't sacrifice ten percent of your power and not check up on its situation every once in a while.

But at least now he refrained from being the 'digimon side' of Tai.

"Can we really bother him about this again?" Gennai asked. "He already sacrificed twenty-five years of his life for us. No, I think if anything were to happen, we should turn to a newer, fresher generation of digidestined."

* * *

Meanwhile in another world.

Two brave warriors stood across each other. Rain dripped on their masks as they waited. The yellow clad warrior's hand twitched. His patience was running out.

He glared at his opponent, standing there on the courtyard.

This was their final battle.

One would stand while one would fall.

"Fight!" A voice called out from the heavens and both warriors charged each other, not even flinching as thunder suddenly struck close to their battleground.

* * *

"You do know you're going to lose this one." Taichi grinned. **"You said that like fifteen times. Face it, you'll never win."**

With that said both Tai and Taichi began hitting the buttons on their controllers, motioning their characters to oblige to their every command.

Moments later the screen called out 'Fatality' as Tai's warrior showed any spectator's watching his true face as he burned his foolish little nephew's character to death.

"**15 times in a row."** Tai said. **"You suck."**

"Aww man." Taichi whined. "How the hell can I lose against someone who doesn't even have opposable thumbs?"

Tai looked at his paws and back at the controller. **"You're just that bad?" **He offered.

* * *

Back in the Digital world.

"You know? I have this weird feeling we're all doomed." Gennai said as the sun finally showed its face.

"Nah." AncientSphinxmon shrugged. "We had a good run."

* * *

"Explain to me again how you planned this all behind Tai's back?" Gatomon asked Kari. Gatomon had returned to calling him by his name again instead of 'son' and tried to keep her mothering off Tai to a limit, mostly because Tai kept escaping her clutches.

"This is Tai we're talking about." Kari said, looking up from her magazine. "He's my brother and I love him but face it: he isn't the sharpest tool in the shed you know."

"Whenever he came close to discovering something we just threw something shiny at him." TK said as he walked into the room. Everyone stared at him. "Hey, we all know it's true." He defended himself.

Kari decided to stop focusing on her husband and more on what was important.

"Izzy should be getting here any minute now." She said. "Gatomon, can you make sure Tai doesn't get down here till noon?"

"Are you kidding me?" Gatomon looked up to her. "Our son and your son have been playing games on that infernal contraption of his since midnight. Heck, they won't be down till this evening."

"Even better." Kari said as she laid down her magazine and stood up again. "Let's get to it."

* * *

"Flawless victory!" The voice yelled out again.

"**Let's see…that makes 121 against…2"** Tai said as he put down the controller.

"Damn you, you furry cretin!" Taichi complained.

"**Damn it's already dark outside." **Tai suddenly said.** "We haven't eaten anything since yesterday evening." **Right about then Tai started to notice the empty feeling in his stomach.

"Let's call it a day, shall we?" Taichi stated. "Anymore and this thing is going to explode." With that he meant the console they were playing on which, by now, was red in stead of it's normal black color.

"**Whatever, let's just get out of here. Maybe your mom still has some leftovers from dinner." **Tai said as he stretched a bit. Sitting still for hours on end was not good for your bones, digital or not.

"Not likely." Taichi said as he opened the door. "Aunt Gato and uncle Patamon usually eat everything that could be considered leftovers." He then paused for a second. "Some times they even eat the ingredients right out of the fridge."

"**That's digimon for you." **Tai said as he walked through the hallway.** "We'll eat anything that…looks…edible…" **Tai said those words slowly as he entered the living room.

Twelve pairs of eyes looked at him.

Well, actually eleven as you can't really count the computer screen there as well.

All of Tai's friends stood there, eyes wide open as they saw the puppy standing in the doorway.

As they gazed upon Tai certain…feelings were spread amongst the room. Confusion, happiness, the distinctive need to take a better look at TK and Kari's floor.

"Three more down." Kari stated. "That means I win." Inwardly Kari laughed as she made a mental note of asking the other competitors for their money soon after all of this.

* * *

After Sora and Davis (Matt fainted as well as he's broadcasting live! From outer space!) were placed on a more appropriate location Tai felt that it was time for an explanation.

"**What the hell is going on here?"**

"Well… Let's just say that we thought it was time that everyone else met up with you again." TK said. "And look how well they are taking it!"

Most of the people there were either A: out cold, B: speechless, C: not terribly interested. But there was only one person in that last category and he doesn't count.

_FLASHBACK TIME!!!_

"_Okay, so we need to plan something." TK said. "Nothing big, just us digidestined, so we can surprise both Tai and our friends."_

"_True but what after the whole 'hey-guys-Tai-lives!' thing is over?" Kari asked._

"_Simple. Me and the guys take him out partying." TK smirked. "After all, he wasn't there on my bachelor's party. Nor Joe's." He quickly added that last bit._

"_Are you sure that's a good idea?" Kari asked. She remembered all too well what the aftermath was of TK's Bachelor's party._

"_No but he's in his forties and still hasn't touched a beer! We owe it to him." TK stated, completely dedicated to this cause._

"_Okay so I called everyone." Kari said. "I asked the girls to come here as well for a girls night out."_

"_I did the same. But then for a guys night out, I guess." TK said. "The only problem we have is Matt, seeing as he's on Mars."_

"_Ask Izzy to help, maybe he knows something to contact Matt."Kari supplied._

"_Good idea."_

* * *

"_So he's back huh." Izzy said over the phone. TK had explained the whole situation to him. _

"_Yeah but don't tell anyone else, okay? We still need it to be somewhat of a surprise."_

"_No problem." Izzy answered. "Saturday, right? I'll be there by noon."_

"_Great, see you then."_

* * *

"_Party!" Davis yelled as he walked in too the Takashi household. Neither the years or his occupation did anything to Davis to make him grow up._

"_Sorry I'm late." Sora said as she walked in after Kari greeted her at the door. "Traffic from the airport was bad and Tyrone here needed to secure the perimeter." She rolled her eyes at that as she motioned to her body guard behind her._

"_Which it is ma'am." Tyrone spoke, almost mechanically. "If I may take my leave to somewhere away from the festivities?" He asked._

"_Nonsense." Sora said. "You're like family." She continued. "You're the quiet, gun wielding uncle I never had."_

_Tyrone didn't know what to say to that but sat down somewhere out of the way._

"_Is he always like that?" Kari asked as she pointed to the 'Men in Black' agent, complete with sunglasses sitting on a chair in the kitchen._

"_Usually." Sora said. "Normally he's just patrolling the house back in America but since Matt's 'departure' he's been a bit on edge for some reason."_

_She would have continued talking about her bodyguards tendencies if it weren't for the fact that__ her eye wandered the room a bit as she spoke. She immediatly recognized Yolei, Ken, who was currently conversing with Davis and one other redhead._

_She drew in a deep breath of air and yelled. "IZZY!!"_

"_Crap."__He sighed._

"_When will my husband get back from Mars?" She tapped her foot angrily as she towered over the computer nerd._

"_Eh… soon?"_

_Wrong answer!_

_Sora grabbed him by the neck (softly off course)and was about to hit Izzy on the head when she heard Matt's voice. "Eh Sora? He's going to need that head of his to get the three of us down you know."_

"_Matt? Where are you?" Sora looked around to see Izzy's laptop sitting on the coffee table._

"_Hi honey!" Matt waved from the screen to her._

"_Surprise…" Izzy said, as loud as he could with Sora's death grip still around his neck._

* * *

_Moments later when Izzy was back to his normal color he explained how exactly he was able to talk to Matt through the laptop._

"_I just use the satellite of JAXA and linked it to my laptop." He said, talking about it as if it was as normal as changing the batteries._

"_Won't you get arrested for that?" Ken asked._

"_Nah, being the big boss at JAXA has its benefits you know."_

* * *

_Both Mimi and Joe showed up at the same time. Actually Joe waited for her as he was worried about her health. Not that he'd ever admit it openly. After all, if the boss found out he'd have to work overtime again._

"_Joe stop fussing over me, I'll be fine." Mimi was in the middle of her dialogue as TK opened the door to let them in. "And besides, you're off duty now."_

"_A doctors duty is never over." Joe said, lifting his cane up dramatically. "Only in severe cases of cold infestations."_

"_Sure Joe, just try not to knock the lamps down, like you did last time." TK said, rolling his eyes a bit._

* * *

"_Sorry I'm late." Cody said as he walked in through the door. He was the last one to arrive. "Cody! Nice to see you!" Yolei yelled out. As the years had gone by the two of them remained good friends, even though Cody's career left with little time to spend. And most of that time went to his own family._

"_The same to you Yolei, how are the kids?" Cody asked, putting down his briefcase, which indicated that he came almost straight from work. "Oh they're fine, the Digimon are looking after them… though I get the feeling it's the other way around at moments."_

"_The same at home." Cody said as he walked into the living room. "Rukia stayed home, as she 'doesn't know anyone' here." Cody said._

"_Well, she's always welcome you know." Kari said._

"_I know and I'll tell her that…again." Cody stated, knowing that it was probably a lost cause. His wife never was one for getting to know new people._

"_So… who else are we waiting for?" Davis asked. "You said we were gonna party like it was 2013 all over again."_

"_Calm down Davis." Joe said, bobbing his cane on the redhead's head. "We're waiting for one more person."_

"_Who?" Davis asked as the door to the living room suddenly opened up. _

_End Flashback_

"And that's about it." TK said. By now all those that had fainted were back to this plain of existence. Well, all except Matt off course.

"When did he get back?" Matt yelled from the computer screen. If he could he would have jumped through the screen, but even the future's technology had its limitations. Instant matter transportation was one of them.

"Somewhere around the end of summer vacation." TK supplied. "Though we had absolutely no idea who he was at the moment."

"Though I was starting to get suspicious when he tried to kill TK. Three times." Kari continued.

"**Actually four times." **Tai spoke up, trying to ignore the many stares he got from his friends.** "Remember that coffee a few days ago? Accidently put laxatives in there instead of poison."**

"Everyone tried their best not to laugh. Few succeeded.

"I can't believe you actually fell for that TK!" Davis laughed. He had finally taken the time to properly learn TK's name. after all, you can't know someone for more twenty-five years, be his best man at the wedding and still call him TJ.

The same with Matt, who was currently rolling around, laughing his ass off in low gravity.

"He didn't notice until he was half way to his publishers." Kari added. "He had to pull over and run to the nearest public toilet around."

"People who saw me run claim I set a new world record on the 200m dash." TK sulked.

"Don't worry TK." Joe said, patting the writer on the back. "We'll make sure Tai here doesn't try to kill you tonight, okay?" Though not many noticed Joe had a rather evil grin on his face, one you normally won't find on a doctor…

"**What's going on tonight?" Tai asked suspiciously. **

"Guy's night out little man." Davis said, looking down at Tai. "Wow, that's weird." He said as he stared Tai in the eye. "It's been more twenty years since I last talked to a dog."

"**Hey!" **Tai yelled out, lunging at Davis. Davis just laughed and caught Tai mid-air. "Just kidding Tai." Davis said, holding Tai in front of him. "I'm still looking up to you, you know…even if you only come up to my knees."Davis said. 'And just barely.' He added in his mind.

"Aww….look at the big man showing his feelings." Matt said from the computer screen. He was right though. Serving as Leading Firefighter on Odaiba's fire brigade made sure you didn't stay so scrawny forever.

Davis normally would have complained. "This coming from the man who had a hug-a-ton with Tai last time he came back." But Davis does have his moments of glory. Sora was more then glad to give him the details of this 'incident.'

"It was a man hug!" Matt yelled loudly. Izzy wasn't even sure if it was coming through the speakers or if Matt's voice just carried across the universe. He was rooting for option two though. "It's very manly…"

"For the last time, no one is questioning your manliness." She glared at both Tai and Davis, daring them both to try.

"**So what are we going to do tonight?" **Tai asked, trying to change the subject, before he gave in to the needs of questioning Matt's manliness.** 'Come on!' He yelled in his own mind. 'You just know there's something wrong! The hair people! The hair!'**

"Yeah about that." TK started. "Seeing as how you missed two bachelor's parties and the fact that you're forty years old we decided to take you clubbing."

"So we can catch up a bit. After all you've bee gone for a long time." Izzy said, as he knew about it already.

"And that's why I asked everyone to come over." TK said. "So we'd all be together again, like a team."

"Yeah." Davis said. "So let's get the hell out of here and into the bars!" He yelled out as he put Tai down again.

"So where are you guys heading off to?" Kari asked, an amused look on her face. How could a bunch of grown men act so childish all of a sudden?

"Sorry my beautiful wife but that's a secret." TK said as he gave her a kiss. "We're off!"

"Hey! What about me?" Taichi complained as every man in the room, except Tyrone off course, grabbed their coat and made for the door.

"Sorry little man but this you have to be at least this tall to come along." Joe said as he lifted his cane to just under Izzy's head, as he was the shortest of them all.

"And what about him?" Taichi said smugly as he pointed at his furry uncle.

"ehh…." Joe was at a loss for words there.

"I know!" Davis picked Tai up again and put him on Joe's head. "The ones who don't get this are paying for tonight's drinks!" He yelled; meaning the incident twenty-five years ago, with Tai raining down from the sky. Tai and Joe just rolled their eyes at their friend's actions.

"I don't get it." Izzy whispered to Cody, who promptly, in a case of OOC-syndrome, yelled out: "Izzy doesn't get it! He's paying!"

Izzy stood there with a 'What-the-hell' look on his face. "Hey, I'm a lawyer. Everything you say to me can and will be used against you in the court of law."

And so did the male population of the digidestined, minus their digimon, leave for the bars, leaving their female counterparts and a fuming Taichi behind.

* * *

"Can you believe that?" Mimi asked as the men disappeared into the night. "They left us behind!"

"You weren't seriously considering going with them, were you?" Yolei asked.

"No but I hate being left alone." Mimi said, tapping her foot a few times.

"I think it's for the better." Sora said. "After all, who would want to go clubbing with a bunch of middle-aged men that think they're still teenagers?"

"Good point." Mimi admitted.

"Come on, we have our own clubbing to do." Kari said as she got her own coat. "The digimon are all either babysitting or are out as well, though Gatomon and Patamon will be back in an hour…" She said as she went over her mental checklist. "Taichi's in his room." She felt like she was forgetting something.

"Eh Sora, what about your guard?" She motioned a hand to the man, who was still sitting in the kitchen.

"Oh right, Tyrone." The man stood up. "I want you to take the night off, explore the city a bit. We're just a bit out of Odaiba and the city is most alive at night."

"Sure about that ma'am?" Tyrone said. He wasn't to sure about leaving her to her own devices. After all it was his duty to protect her.

"Positive, now go out there and enjoy the city." Sora said, putting on her own coat again. "That's an order."

With that said Tyrone made himself scarce.

"Hey, where do you think the men will end up this time?" Mimi asked suddenly.

"Not sure but I hope they stay in this part of the world this time." Kari said.

* * *

Many, many hours later.

"Oh my head." Davis moaned. "What happened?"

"Things went a little crazy after we got out of the bar." Joe claimed as he sat up and reached for his cane.

"Where the hell are we anyway?" Izzy asked.

"**Damn…" **Someone muttered from beneath a crate.** "My head feels like a stampede ran through it…twice. Before deciding that Pogo-sticks would be an even beter means of transportation."**

"I'm so proud." TK said as he picked Patamon off of his head. "Little Tai has his first hangover."

"**I'd kick your ass if there weren't four of you." **Tai muttered as he crawled out from under the previously mentioned crate and tried to get on to all fours.

"Eh guys?" Davis's voice was heard.

"What is it Davis?"

"I don't think we're in Japan anymore."

* * *

"Any sign of them?" Kari asked, a bit worried. "None, but they'll turn up eventually." Yolei assured her.

* * *

Davis looked at a plate attached to a pole.

"Ant-wer-pen." Davis said, pronouncing each syllable rather oddly.

* * *

They're screwed now! What happened to them? When did Patamon show up and how did Tai end up in that crate?

Find out next time on Spirits of Ages!!!!

Damn! It took me long to get this chapter on! My project combined with exams = not good on free time. But I got a whopping 71% in total! I'm the frigging best of class!!

Also, minor trivia: the last bit of the chapter is the conclusion of a typical night out with Ronald. Getting drunk, forgetting what we do and end up in some place that we have no idea how we got there.

**Reviews!**

Super garurumon: relax my friend, the Gatomon thing was only temporary. Gatomon, though not featured in this chapter, will start treating him like a brother again. Though she might still have some motherly instincts at moments…

Vigatus: read above my friend 'points to review response of super garurumon'

Lord Pata: nah, Patamon is rather chill in that department. He'll be more of the 'mellow big brother' kind, seeing the fact that he's a bit bigger then Tai now.

PrincessJaded: both of them are here, happy? Gabumon does have good hearing :) and the other digimon will show later too. The villain, well he's rather obvious… but I have it all worked out! 'shows post-its notes taped to wall' sort of…

Beth: yeah he could but that would take the fun out of it.

Aldamonburst: sooner or later. I'm not done torturing him yet! 'EVIL laughter ensues'

Depthmon: okay we'll spare those countries 'mutters' We Belgian people will settle for partial world domination.

: glad you liked it!

Takari4ever3012: indeed, more like filler (I hate filler! I wish it would die!) but we need it in the best of stories…

Martiny the one and only still: 'just stands there as Martiny tries to resuscitate all of the digidestined'

Merry late christmas and a happy 2009!

Later people! And R&R! for too long have I been devoid of fresh reviews! They give me life! 'twitch-twitch'


	14. Sail away

I still don't own Digimon!

* * *

Spirits of Ages

Chapter 13

"Oh hell no." Ken said, looking at the sign Davis pointed at. "How the hell did we end up here?"

"From that I assume you know where we are?" TK spoke as he joined them at the sign.

"Afraid so…" Ken said. "We're in Antwerp. As in Antwerp, in Belgium…" (AN: just couldn't resist but they won't stay for long.)

"**Why is that bad?" **Tai asked as he wobbled over to them.** "Oh wait, let me guess… the entire country is overrun with zombies?" **Everyone just stared at Tai.

"**No zombies then…" **Tai said, trying to think straight once more before he made another suggestion.

"Well let's put it this way." Izzy started. "We left Saturday night in Japan and now we're in Europe. Tuesday. " He added that last word, shocking everyone just a bit.

Tai's eyes bulged. **"Did the same thing happen last time you went binging?"** He asked them.

"Pretty much…" TK said, picking Patamon up off the ground. He couldn't really remember when the rookie had shown up. "We ended up on a cargo ship, leaving to Australia."

"And Joe lost his pants." Davis said. "Don't forget that."

"The seagulls took it!" Joe yelled in his defense. Tai was trying his best not to laugh out loud. Mostly because it would cause his skull to split in two if he did.

"Okay, drunken stories aside. Let's keep track of our priorities." Izzy said. "We need to find a way to get back in Japan."

"Don't worry my nerdy friend." Davis said. "I know exactly what to do."

* * *

"See? I told you it would work." Davis said smugly.

"Davis, I highly doubt that your 'plan' helped at all." TK said. "You making a plate with 'Japan or bust' written on it didn't help as much as Izzy's credit card." Ken supplied.

"And the other plan was even worse." Cody said.

_Flashback_

_After Davis's first scheme had failed miserably he felt that it was time for striking up a conversation with the natives._

"_Greetings!" He yelled at a few men working at the docks. "I am Davis!"_

_The workers raised an eyebrow. Who the hell was this guy?_

"_We kind of got stuck here when we snuck aboard a boat to this Antwerp!" He pointed at the plate that said 'Antwerp.'_

"_Snuck aboard?" One of the workers asked. "So you're a stowaway?"_

"_Yes! I mean, no! We have an excellent explanation for that happening!"_

"_Which is?" The man made a gesture, urging Davis to continue. _

"_We were incredibly drunk." He sweatdropped._

_End flashback. _

Off course that only worked against him.

"Everyone's against me." Davis sulked.

"Oh cheer up, at least we'll be home in about two days." Cody said. "We were lucky the captain recognized us as the stowaways from two days earlier."

"We're also lucky that he has a good sense of humor, else he would have called the harbor police." TK said as he sat down on a rather cold chair in one of the somewhat habitable rooms aboard the ship.

"Hey at least we're on our way home." Joe said. "And besides, we had fun these last few days, right?"

"Wish I could remember." Cody said.

"This boat trip left a huge dent in my bank account." Izzy muttered.

"**This was the last time I'm going anywhere with the likes of you."** Tai muttered. He had actually turned a rather strange shade of green. "**Move that crate over here will you."**

"Why?" Joe asked as he shoved said crate to Tai. To their surprise he jumped on it, flipped it and crawled under it.

"It helps with the hangover." TK whispered with a satisfied smirk on his face. "Tai just can't hold his alcohol…"

His only response were a few angry grumbles coming from within the crate and a chuckle from the other men in the room.

"But serious now, does anyone remember what happened the past few days?" Ken asked.

"Not really." Davis said.

"**No."**

"I remember fighting Godzilla." Joe supplied. "Joe, that was a man in costume." Izzy said, the memories of the past days coming back to him one by one.

"So we didn't save the world again?" Joe was met with a few shakes of the head. "Damn…"

"That word sums up our situation." Ken said.

"Oh it gets worse." Davis said in a sing-song way. "For a few of you that is."

"What do you mean?" Cody asked.

"Let's just say that at this point, I'm glad not to be married." Davis said, an evil grin on his face.

Cody, TK and Ken sweatdropped. Patamon would have too but he was too busy being unconscious.

* * *

"So any sign off our husbands and teammates?" Kari asked. She was worried to death but still knew that they would be home soon. Call it a gut feeling if you will.

"Not yet but when Ken shows up I'm going to clobber him to hell and back!" Perhaps it was in Ken's best interests to stay away for a bit longer…

"Joe can better show up within the next few days." Gomamon grumbled. "I'm a digimon, not a babysitter." He said to the others who had gathered in Kari's house. His right eye was twitching for some reason.

"You can handle huge water serpents and Dark Masters but one little girl and her digimon are to much for you?" Gatomon raised an eyebrow.

"Sure, now they look all innocent." Gomamon said, pointing a flipper at the supposedly innocent daughter of his partner. Hinata sat on the couch next to him with her Bukamon on her lap. "But when she's away from the public eye she turns into a vicious hell raiser!" Okay, even Gomamon knew he was exaggerating but hey, a mon has his limits.

Hinata pouted, Bukamon did her best not to laugh and Mimi burst out laughing.

"Sure laugh it up." Gomamon said. "I'm holding you personally responsible for her change in attitude."

"How is that?" Mimi asked, trying her best to keep up her own 'innocent' image.

"She started acting up whenever she got back from you watching after her, she only does it when her dad isn't around and last week she dyed my hair pink, because someone told her that it would look perfect with my eyes." Gomamon gave his reasons. The pink still hadn't washed out and because of that he currently had pink hair with a few splotches of his normal orange, there were the dye had been washed out.

"I think you're busted Mimi." Palmon said. Mimi turned red but didn't say anything.

* * *

"Anyone being able to reach Davis and the others?" Veemon asked. He too had shown up at the rendezvous point, as he had nothing better to do anyway.

"Not yet. Gatomon said. "Oh Patamon is so gonna get it when he gets home." She muttered.

"Trouble in paradise he?" Veemon laughed. He had given up on chasing after Gatomon a long time ago but that didn't stop him from making jokes about his 'eternal rival' Patamon. "He hasn't been in this much trouble since he joined the army." Gatomon tapped her foot in frustration.

* * *

"**What do you mean you joined the army?" **Tai yelled out from under his crate. Patamon had joined the world of the living once more.

"Another one of the side effects of going along with TK's bachelor's party." Patamon said from on top of the crate. "Eight years in service, recon and espionage unit." He said proudly. "Got an honorable discharge after they figured they no longer needed my services." (AN: has absolutely no idea if this can happen)

"Hey Patamon, when did you show up anyway?" Davis asked. He had being wondering about that for a while now.

"You don't remember?" Patamon asked. "Somewhere when…" He trailed off as he remembered Saturday night.

_Flashback_

"_Come on guys, time to go home." Patamon said to the obviously intoxicated middle-aged men. And Tai off course._

_Tai was still on Joe's head for some reason, almost as if he never left it._

"_**Okay-okay." **__Tai said, his voice a bit slurred.__** "But let Davis and Matt finish their song first."**_

"_Okay then… wait, what?" Patamon turned to the stage to see __Davis sitting on a chair on it with a guitar in hand, along with Matt, who was broadcasting live from outer space again._

"_This can't be good." Patamon said._

"_This is a song we wrote about last time we went binging." Davis started. "It doesn't really have a name." Matt continued._

"_But we'll play it anyway!"They yelled at the same time. Most people in the crowd were wondering where the hell these two came from all of a sudden. The manager did the same but allowed them to take the stage. He'd just throw them out later. _

_Patamon landed at TK's table and prepared to cover his massive ears as Davis and Matt started playing. _

We ride with kings on mighty steeds  
Across the devil's plain  
We've walked with Jesus and his cross  
He did not die in vain, NO!

We've run with wolves, we've climbed K2  
Even stopped a moving train  
We've traveled through space and time my friends  
To rock this house again, rock!!

We ride and we ride and we'll never subside  
And we'll ride till the planets collide  
And if you say that we do not ride  
I'll tan your f'ing hide, ride!!

_(Tenacious D's History, which I don't own but thought would be funny to use in this fic.)_

_As the two of them finished up the bouncer stepped up to the stage, picked Davis and the computer up and threw them out of the bar._

"_That's one way to end a good night out." Patamon said, a sweatdrop forming as Davis 'flew' through the doorway._

"_Oh please, we've only just started." TK said as he stood up._

_End flashback_

"And that's about it." Patamon concluded. "Things went downhill from there on."

"**Given our current condition, I say that's an understatement." **Tai's voice was heard.

"That didn't make any sense." Davis said. "I can't even play the guitar."

"And what happened to Matt?" Cody asked.

"I have no idea." Izzy said, pulling his laptop out of nowhere and opened it up, before cleaning off the dirt that it obtained after being tossed out of the bar.

"Matt do you hear me? Matt?" The screen was covered in static for a while, before Matt's head suddenly popped up.

"Finally!" He yelled. "I thought you'd never open that laptop again."

"Sorry Matt, I don't even remember what happened after the bar incident, let alone when I closed this thing up." Izzy said.

"Do you know what else happened?" TK asked, still a bit freaked out by seeing his brother on the tiny screen, while he was actually on Mars.

"Or were you too hammered to remember as well?" Davis asked.

"Nah." Matt answered. "We only have freeze-dried beer here." He said, holding out one of the stick-shaped beer 'cans'. "Tastes like crap."

Davis smirked. "Oh and by the way, Davis. When I get back to earth you are so joining my band. We've been looking for a new lead guitarist since Susanoomon left."

"Osamu." Ken corrected. "Osamu, right." Matt said, he had always called the mega digimon by his digimon name, seeing as it was his name for about ten thousand years.

"Eh guys?" Matt had noticed the room they were in. "Are you in jail or something?" He commented, pointing at the grey walls.

"No, we're on a cargo ship." TK said. "Heading our way home mind you."

"Again huh?" Matt had his trademark 'cool' smirk on his face.

"Again." TK said. "Where did you end up this time?" Matt asked.

"Europe, Belgium more precisely." Cody answered.

"**At least now I can say I've been there." **Tai said, still from under his crate.

"Hey Tai, you okay?" Matt asked. "You sound rather sick."

"That's what you get for going onboard a boat like this." Joe said. "A hangover combined with seasickness is a bad idea."

"**Now you tell me." **Tai said sarcastically.

"Anyway, I was about to tell you about what happened." Matt ignored Tai's remark and thought back to that night.

_Flashback_

"_You guys are so wasted." Matt laughed from the computer. "Too bad I can't be there with you."_

"_There should be some astronaut's beer in the care package we send." Izzy laughed._

"_Ever tried that stuff?" Matt asked. "Tastes like cardboard."_

"_Could be worse." Izzy said. "How?" Matt asked as he tapped the 'beer' on his own computer screen a few times._

"_No beer at all." Izzy said bluntly._

"_Oh my god!" Someone suddenly yelled. Matt recognized that voice as Ken's._

"_What's going on?" He asked._

"_That!"_

_End flashback_

"So what was happening there?" Davis asked. Ken though for a second. "I vaguely remember yelling that but not really what actually happened."

"Good thing I taped it then." Matt's evil smirk arose.

"**Wait!" **Tai yelled as he scrambled out from under the crate.** "I want to see too." **With that said Davis picked Tai up and placed him on an empty chair, so he too could see it.

"As a warning first." Matt started. "This video contains weird and possibly dangerous images, to the normal mind that is. So you should al be fine."

"Just roll the damn tape." TK said, rolling his eyes at his supposedly cool brother's antics.

The file opened up and showed something that would be burned into their mind for ever and ever and ever.

"Joe!" The computer counterpart of Patamon yelled at the doctor. "Put your pants back on!"

"Never!" Joe yelled as he ran off as fast as he could with a limp and being intoxicated. Not to mention the fact that Tai was still on his head, holding on for dear life.

"**Okay…" **Tai said slowly.** "Let's never watch or speak about that video ever again."**

"I agree." Was the reaction of most of the population of the room. "Hell no!" Davis yelled. "Matt, send me a copy of that! I'm putting that on Youtube!"

That earned him a solid hit with the CoW! The Cane of Wrath!

"Hey that hurts you know." Davis said, rubbing the sore spot on his head. "Sorry, I was just trying to knock the stupid out of you." Joe said, in a perfect doctor like way that made it seem like you really needed that. (you know what I mean, all doctors do that, mine especially after getting blood drawn for tests.)

Davis just grumbled something about obnoxious doctors and their canes.

"Good." Joe said as Davis didn't attack him, physically or verbally. Too bad for Joe he didn't notice him mouthing 'send that to me' to Matt on the screen. Matt just stuck up his thumb and smiled his cool guy smile.

* * *

"**Hey Joe?"**Tai suddenly asked. **"What was up with that scar on your leg?" **He had seen it a while ago on the video, a rather big jagged scar running down Joe's left leg, stopping just past the knee.

Joe raised an eyebrow. "Sure you want to hear that story right now? It's a real tearjerker you know."

Tai just nodded, needing to know what it was. Perhaps this was what had changed Joe like this.

Joe sighed. "There's no way out of this, is there?"

Tai shook his head. **"If you don't want to tell it, it's fine by me." **Tai didn't really mean that but if it made Joe too uncomfortable he'd wait till another time.

"Nah, it's fine." Joe waved his hands in a dismissive way. "It was bound to happen soon, might as well get it over with."

"It all started with a girl, a young women more precise, that I met after I graduated. I was working in a small hospital, you know those little ones for minor injuries or to wait for an ambulance to bring you to a 'real' hospital." Joe thought back at those times, better times actually.

"One day she walked through the door." Joe suddenly found the lamp on the ceiling very interesting and decided to stare at it for a while.

"She was covered in blood, filth and who knows what else." Joe continued. "She had been forced to carry a man nearly twice her size to our miniature hospital because the ambulances couldn't get through because of the traffic."

"**Sounds like one hell of a women." **Tai mused.

"She sure was." Joe continued. "Anna was her name." He continued, only now realizing that he hadn't mentioned her name before. "She came from England and moved to Japan for various reasons."

"After stabilizing that man to the best of my abilities and sending him off to the real hospital we started chatting. And a long story short is that even though she was younger then me by almost five years, we got married and got a beautiful daughter."

"**Hinata, right?" **Tai had seen the little girl cling to his nephew for some reason.

Joe nodded and was about to continue his story when an alarm went off. Red lights started flashing.

"That doesn't sound good, does it?" TK asked.

At that time the boat started shaking, sending the computer, crates and digidestined crashing into the wall.

"**Ouch." **A voice muttered from underneath the pile of people. **"Would you mind getting off of me?"**

"Sorry Tai." Cody said, as he had fallen almost directly on top of Tai. He stood up and picked the rookie level up from between the rest of the rubble.

"Everyone okay?" Joe asked. In situations like these his instincts acted up, causing him to immediately scan for injuries amongst his team.

"We're good." TK said. The sound of metal being crushed was heard. "But for some reason I doubt that will stay that way."

"We have to make our way to the deck." Davis said. "I sincerely doubt that this is just some stormy weather."

The majority of the room nodded and started making their way to the deck. "Seems like I'll have to finish my tale later on." Joe said as he too started to climb the stairs.

"**I'll keep you to that." **Tai said as he ran past Joe.

A few staircases and dead ends later they ended up on the deck. It was dark outside but a few lights were on, along with a bunch of huge search lights. For some reason the light was reflected from the deck itself. TK bend down and ran his hand over the floor. "Ice?" He asked out loud, breaking a piece of it off.

"What the hell is going on here?" Davis asked, now seeing that the entire deck had been turned into a glacier. "That!" Patamon yelled.

Wrapped around the huge ship was an even bigger sea serpent!

"This just can't be good." Cody said, seeing how the creature reared its head and sent forth another barrage of ice, slowly but surely incasing the entire ship in a thick layer of ice.

"Crap." Izzy said. "If this keeps up we'll sink. This ship is already loaded and won't be able to carry both its cargo and all this ice."

"But what is that thing?" Joe asked. "It looks like Seadramon but…"

Indeed it did look like Seadramon. It had a yellow scaled head along with the streamlined greenish body but something seemed wrong with it.

"There's something wrong with its head." Joe said. "The teeth are all wrong."

"What are you, a dentist?" Davis asked.

"No, but I've spend enough time in the jaw off one of those to know its jawbones like the back of my hand." Poor Joe was referring to a time where he had been forced to climb down a Seadramon's mouth to pull a rotten tooth. Being a digimon doctor made sure you visited the weirdest places.

"**Yeah yeah yeah, you can look at its teeth all you want once I knock them out of his mouth." **Tai boasted.

"**Patamon, you up to some old school style ass kicking?" **Tai asked the flying digimon next to him.

"After you kiddo." Patamon smiled. He'd never admit it but even he enjoyed a good fight every now and then. Let's just hope that he hasn't gotten rusty.

"**Fine by me." **Tai said as he took off, running towards the sea serpent, that opened its maw and fired a blast of ice at the rookie. Tai smirked and simply faded into smoke to allow the ice to pass him.

"Patamon, go help him." TK said. "We'll go and get the captain and his men out of here." He referred to the men who were desperately trying to defend their ship, using any means possible. But their guns weren't effective against Seadramon's armoured skin.

Patamon nodded and flew off.

"Patamon digivolves too…" The golden light engulfed Patamon, like so many times before, shifting his data around to form…

"Angemon!"

The angelic digimon landed next to Tai. **"Nice seeing you again." **Angemon was a rather welcome ally in a battle like this, mostly because Tai couldn't fly.

"Shouldn't you digivolve?" Angemon asked, before taking to the skies again.

"**Good idea." **Tai rolled his eyes. **'Okay, I can do this." **He thought.** 'I'm not dependent off my nephew to digivolve.' **He had tried a few times to digivolve but never succeeded, there was always a thick barrier, keeping his energy from flowing freely. But that was only to get to his rookie form, he hadn't tried to become Lowemon yet.

"**DemiSphinxmon digivolves too…"**

Tai felt the energy coursing through him, only to find the same barrier as before...

He grinned.

It was much weaker then before.

'**Barriers are meant… to be… BROKEN!' **Tai yelled out in his mind, forcing energy through it like a tank through cardboard boxes.

And so did the barrier in Tai's system broke, allowing his energy to flow freely again.

* * *

A long distance away from this scene, in the house that TK called home, something weird happened.

Taichi was chatting with Gomamon, when suddenly his digivice gave off a high-pitched tone.

"What's going on?" Gomamon yelled, covering his ears quickly. "No idea!" Taichi yelled over the sound as he pulled out his digivice. The screen was white and the entire thing seemed to glow.

"Aaah!" Taichi cried out in pain, dropping the digivice. "It burns!"

And so did the digivice fall to the floor, a crack forming in the screen.

Immediately the sound stopped and the light faded. Kari, having heard the commotion, like anyone else off course, came into the room and picked up the device.

"This can't be good." She said, running her finger along the crack in the screen.

* * *

Meanwhile back on the ship.

The light coming from Tai was bright enough to light the darkness of the night.

"What's taking him so long?" Ken asked. "I don't know but he'd better hurry up, in this state he's incredibly vulnerable." Izzy remembered all too well what had happened to Greymon and Kabuterimon when they were attacked halfway through their digivolution.

The light coming from Tai suddenly disappeared, drenching the deck in darkness again, the only sources of light being the search lights installed on the boat, which were currently aimed at Seadramon.

"**Lowemon's back in business." **They heard Tai's voice.** "Wait, what the hell happened to me?"**

* * *

Dun-dun-dun! What happened to Tai? Find out in the next chapter of Spirits of Ages!!!

And don't take the part about Patamon joining the army to serious. I just wanted an excuse to dress him in camouflage later on.

Lol funny thing about this fic is that I wanted to send them to Belgium, right? You know the zombie remark that Tai made, I was going to have Izzy answer that question with a small lesson in possible future's for Belgium. A civil war was one of the first things I wanted to put, as Belgium is a rather f'd up country. Serious, we have like six governments. And our prime minister was booted a few weeks ago, so we have a new one. But the problem is that no one wants to friggin cooperate with each other!!

If this isn't solved quickly I fear there might actually be a civil war between Wallonia and Flanders. Things are seriously tense here.

Anyway, I'm only answering a few reviews with questions today, okay because I should have been asleep like two hours ago…

Reviews:

Martiny the one and only: it's a difficult word for CPR

Lord Pata: she'll never truly stop doing that you know ^^

Princess jaded: she has one because she's filthy rich! And she's married to Matt, so she's bound to get a few stalkers after her.

Beth: Antwerpen or Antwerp in English is the biggest port of Belgium and one of the biggest in Europe. Davis just couldn't pronounce it correctly.

Later people! R&R!


	15. Battle aboard

Still not mine.

* * *

Spirits of Ages

Chapter 14

"**What the hell happened to me?" **Tai yelled out, his voice sounding oddly clear above the rumbling of the sea.

"Tai!" TK's voice was filled with concern. After all, Kari and Gatomon would kill him if something happened to Tai. "Are you okay?"

"**Do I look okay?" **Tai turned around, showing his face to the digidestined.

They all gasped as they saw Tai's face, or more precisely what covered it. Tai's eyes were the only thing they could see clearly, as the rest of his face was covered in an obsidian helmet shaped like a skull with three red eyes in the center.

"Is that… Tai?" Davis asked slowly. "I think so." Izzy said. "Wait, isn't that…"

"Duskmon!" Angemon yelled out, causing Tai to turn back to the battlefield and the huge sea serpent.

Tai just shook his head, trying to clear his head a bit. He'd worry about this later.

"You owe me a honest duel later!" Angemon yelled, shaking his fist at the dark digimon.

"**Sure?" **Tai shrugged as he held his dragon head shaped gauntlets in front of him, trying to summon his spear.

What he got was a silver flash as a crimson red sword was in his hand, a distinct scar running down it, as if someone had forged two pieces of metal together.

"**Not what I'm used to." **Tai grumbled. **"But it'll do."**

"That's not Lowemon, is it?" Cody asked. The answer was clear off course but he still wanted confirmation.

"That's Duskmon." Ken said as he watched Tai charge Seadramon. "Last time he was around he tried to kill us."

"True, but back then Tai was controlled by GearDevimon." Joe grumbled. That was one of the worst memories he had.

"So Izzy, why do you think that happened?" TK asked the genius of the 01 group.

"How should I know?" Izzy asked. "I don't know everything you know."

Away from this all Tai was currently getting used to be being Duskmon again. He didn't really remember much about being him last time, the whole thought control thing made sure of that.

But he had bigger fish to fry, literally this time. Skidding along the ice that Seadramon made Tai nearly fell over board as he charged the overgrown eel.

"**This sucks!" **Tai yelled as he nearly fell overboard, saving his own life just in time by slamming his blood red blade in the deck to use as a lifeline.

"**At moments like these I wished I could fly." **Tai grumbled as he pulled his sword out of the steel plates of the ship.

His thoughts about the possibilities off flight were interrupted by an ice blast, courtesy of the giant snake wrapped around the ship. Tai just swung his blade at the huge block of ice, splitting it neatly in two.

"**Sweet." **He said in awe as he looked at the crimson blade in his hand. For a weapon that was obviously reforged it was very strong.

Seadramon was pissed off that its attack had done nothing to the two pests that appeared and decided for a full on lunge at the angelic digimon, intend on swallowing him whole.

Angemon preferred not to end up as diner and send one solid "Heaven's knuckle!" Seadramon's way, punching the snake like head hard. So hard that a few teeth came flying out. "Hey Joe, research those!" Angemon laughed.

"What?!" Joe had heard his own name but didn't understand anything else because of the roaring winds.

Angemon sighed. "Never mind." He returned to pummeling Seadramon, only to be knocked out of the air by its flailing head.

Meanwhile Tai made his way to Seadramon, dodging its tail and climbing the creature's stretched out body. Seadramon obviously didn't like this and shook his body to get rid of the humanoid pest.

Tai, not being able to fly or get any other sort of grip on Seadramon, did the first thing that came to his mind.

"Rrrrraaaaawwwwwwwrrr!"

That's got to hurt." Davis winced.

Indeed it would as Tai had sunk his twisted blade into Seadramon's flesh to prevent himself from being flung off of him and possibly overboard.

Tai pulled out his blade and continued his way to Seadramon's head. The serpent decided that it was time for the big guns to be drawn and started to unwrap itself from around the ship.

A few crew members cheered as the creature let go off their ship.

"Tai!" Angemon yelled out. "He's going to dive!"

True to Angemon's word, Seadramon dove into the water, Tai still hanging on tightly as he refused to let go.

Tai was much, a warrior of darkness, a digidestined of courage but he was no fish and as such he needed air to live.

As Seadramon dove deeper and deeper the lack of oxygen and the rising pressure began to get to Tai, causing his already limited vision to swim, literally and figuratively.

He failed to hold on to his sword and was swept away by the current caused by Seadramon's deep dive.

"Angemon! Can you see Tai!?!" TK yelled at his digimon partner, who was currently hovering above the water, trying to get a glimpse of the somewhat corrupted warrior of darkness.

What he got was a glimpse off Seadramon's teeth as the sea creature rose from the deep, Tai's word still plunged into its skin, about ten meters below its head.

"Hand of fate!" Angemon yelled, sending a fist shaped blast of light at Seadramon, hitting it in the eyes this time.

Blinded and angered by pain, the fierce sea snake began flailing around aimlessly, trying to cause as much damage as it could without eyesight.

"Look there!" Ken yelled out. "Tai's okay!"

Okay was a bit exaggerated, as Tai was currently hanging from Seadramon's tail. He had bad barely been able to get a hold of the flipper.

"**Someone get me off of this ride!" **Tai's voice sounded rather distorted as he was swung around, before getting launched away.

Luckily for Tai he was launched towards Seadramon's head again, right at his own sword. He somehow grabbed a hold of it and used all of his strength to run it down Seadramon's body for a few meters and pulling it out again, leaving a large gash.

The snake like beast wasn't pleased at all and shook his entire body around to launch Tai off of him. Tai, not having anything to hang on to anymore was flung through the sky.

But as he soared through the sky Tai fired off one last attack. **"Deadly Gaze!!" **Seven deadly rays of negative energy were send towards Seadramon, hitting the blind digimon dead on. He couldn't take it anymore and burst into digital dust.

Tai was relieved to find their foe defeated, only to start sweating bullets as he nearly crash landed on the icy deck of the boat.

Luckily for him Angemon was around to catch him.

"**Let's never do that again." **Tai said as Angemon put him down on the deck. It took him a while to get steady on the rocking ship.

"I agree."TK said. "Kari and Gatomon would kill me if something were to happen to you."

"Aren't they going to kill you for disappearing for nearly a week?" Davis asked, a huge grin on his face.

"Off course they will." Angemon said before turning into Patamon again in a ray of light. "They're just going to kill him more." Patamon grinned.

"You do realize that Gatomon is going to kill you as well, right?" Ken asked, raising an eyebrow. He off course realized that he'd be dead soon too. Probably from 'death by flying computer parts' or something like that.

"Hey Tai, you can dedigivolve now." Izzy said. "Yeah please do, this form is creeping me out." Joe added. After all, last time Duskmon had chosen him to die first, because he had lived 'longer' then the others.

"**Don't be such scaredy cats." **Tai said, swinging his sword around dangerously. **"It's not like I'm going to turn on you all al of a sudden."**

"We know but still, you look way to different from normal for me." Izzy said, feeling rather uncomfortable when near Tai for some reason.

"**Yeah yeah, what ever." **Tai said, trying to dedigivolve again.

"**Eh guys?"**

"What is it?" Joe asked as he made his way back to the doors of the ship.

"**I'm kinda… stuck." **Tai admitted, rubbing the back of his head in confusion. For some reason he couldn't find the 'click' in his mind to initiate the dedigivolution process.

"Great, just great." Joe said. "We'll figure out what happened later, okay?" Izzy said.

* * *

Later, back in their 'room'.

"Still nothing?" TK asked.

"**No and stop asking." **Tai tapped his armor plated feet in annoyance, sending a metallic sound forth every time.

"It may have something to do with your nephew's digivice." Izzy said, his laptop on the table in front of him. Next to Matt's face was an opened file. Gennai had send it to him years ago and he hoped to find some answers in it.

"**Could be." **Tai said. **"Mini Me does have a digivice. Maybe that's why I couldn't digivolve before."**

"It could also be because of the fact that you used to digivolve without digivice. Perhaps your cellular structure reacted differently with the digital code you received from Taichi's digivice." Ken tried. "Or it's possible that the lack of any digital code in the vicinity caused this 'corruption' so to speak."

"**Sure, why not?" **Tai knew next to nothing about his own or anyone else's digivice, other then the basic stuff.

"Excuse me." A gruff voice said from the open doorway. The captain of the ship stood there.

"Can we help you?" Cody asked, noticing the obvious look of distress on the man's face.

"Perhaps." The captain said. "I don't suppose there's a doctor amongst you?"

Everyone turned to Joe, who just sighed. "Hey, I'm on vacation." He held up his hands in defense. "And don't you have a medic or something aboard?"

"Yes but that's the problem." Captain said.

"Let me guess, the ship's doctor is the injured one?" Joe asked, reaching for his cane before standing up to follow the man to his newest patient. "Fine, I'll come and help him out."

"Thank you." The captain bowed. "Yeah yeah yeah." Joe waved the gesture off. "Just don't tell my boss."

Joe followed the captain to a small infirmary, located one deck below them.

"What's the situation?" Joe asked as he looked at his fellow medic. The man had some bruises on his face and looked rather blue.

"He got knocked overboard, I think it happened when that monster attacked us." The man shuddered. Never had he thought he'd have to fear the sea serpents of lore.

"He survived from falling that high?" Joe asked. The ship wasn't the biggest around but a drop from that high would be rather painful.

The captain nodded. "It's a small miracle we even managed to fish him out. For a moment I feared he'd be gobbled up by the monster."

Joe stroked his chin in thought. "There's not much I can do for him at the moment. See this?" Joe pointed at a lump sticking out a bit at the right side of the man's jaw. "It means it's fractured. The only thing I can do for him right now is wrap some bandages around it to prevent him from moving his mouth to much."

"But what I'm more worried about is the hypothermia." Joe said, holding his hand to the man's face. "Or more likely, the lack of it."

Odd but true, the medic's temperature felt normal at first glance. Joe quickly asked for a thermometer and double-checked it.

"Odd…" He said looking at the device again and again. "He seems perfectly fine though. Just make sure that when he wakes up he doesn't try to move his jaw too much." Joe said. "And send a message ahead for an ambulance when we get back to Japan. His jaw needs to be set as soon as possible."

"Thank you." The captain said. "No problem." Joe said as he looked over his patient again, making sure the bandages were in their proper place.

"But if you don't mind, I'd like to get back to our room." Joe said, moving towards the door, leaving the captain behind at the side of his injured comrade.

* * *

"Yeah it's true, they kicked me and Jun out of the house!" Davis's voice was heard throughout the entire hallway. Joe rolled his eyes as he walked into the door.

"I thought I was the one telling the stories here." Joe said as he sat down again on his chair.

"Yeah but you were taking to long." Davis said. "So I decided to start my story."

"**Serious Davis, that's messed up." **Tai said, looking the man in front of him in the eyes. **"Just like that?"**

"Yes, dad didn't like the fact that me and Jun didn't obey his orders that night." Davis grimaced. "So he just kicked us out and gave us the whole 'I have no son or daughter' speech."

"**Then what happened?" **Tai asked.

"I moved in with your family." Davis said. "They wouldn't take no for an answer." Davis grinned. "Heck, they even made sure I got my training as Fire fighter."

"**Talking about my folks, are they still… you know… around?" **Davis nodded. "That's right, they still don't know you're back yet. We should go see them when we get back."

"**We really should." **Tai said. Truth to be told, he hadn't really thought about them till now. He just assumed they'd show up eventually around the house.

"**Hey, whatever happened to your sister?" **Tai suddenly asked. He didn't really knew Jun all that well but she was still Davis's sister.

"No clue." Davis said, shrugging a bit. "She moved in with Izzy for a while and after that she suddenly disappeared into the digital world. Some mon say that she prowls the Palette Amazon on Server at night." He said that last part in a dark, low voice, almost as if he were telling a ghost story.

Tai sweat dropped. **"You serious?"**

"Totally." Davis answered. "But that's a story for another time. Okay, on to the next story."

"Oh no, it's my turn again." Joe said. "I still haven't finished my story yet."

"But I was going to tell him about how Ken almost lost his virginity." Davis complained. "Don't tell him that!" Ken yelled out.

"Why not Ken? Don't you remember Amy? He wore such a lovely dress, right guys?" TK laughed as Ken turned red.

Tai's sides nearly split as he realized what TK had said.

"Just let Joe tell his tale." Ken said, trying to change the subject.

"Okay, now where was I?" Joe said, as he tried to remember where he had left off. "Oh right."

* * *

"We got married, we had a beautiful daughter and I got a job at a real hospital. Life was good." Joe told those that would listen. "At least for a while." He added darkly.

"We had just gotten back from a medical congress. We had left Hinata with her 'uncle' Gomamon, so she wasn't there with us." Joe swallowed hard. "We stayed in a little hotel somewhere near it for the night and the next morning we would make our way home again."

"Only thing was that a few masked nutcases with guns and knives walked in when we were still checking in. They had robbed a few liquor stores and were running from the cops. And apparently they thought it was a good idea to take hostages with them. Me and Anna were the 'lucky' ones."

"Long story short, the cops showed up and we got caught in a crossfire." Joe's eyes started to turn wet a bit as he remembered those awful hours. "Anna got hit by a stray bullet."

Tai gasped softly. **"And she…"**

Joe just nodded. "After that it was all a blur. I remember her getting shot and then, nothing except a searing pain in my leg. A knife had found its way into it, cutting it up rather badly. Major internal damage, they were barely even able to save my leg. They were suprised that a knife could do that much damage." Joe trailed off.

"**And what about those men?" **Tai asked.

Joe clenched his fists around his cane, the wood creaking under the strain. "The police arrested them. They are currently in jail for life for armed robbery, murder and assault."

"But the one that stabbed me. I somehow managed to get his mask off." Joe turned away from the entire group. "I had seen him a week ago, in the hospital. Coming in for a flu shot."

"**Joe, I'm so sorry." **Tai said, almost wishing he hadn't asked Joe to tell this story. **"You okay?" **

"I'm fine." Joe said, readjusting himself again. "Feels good to get it off of my chest." After all telling his story had allowed him to get to terms with it before.

The others had stayed silent all the while as Joe told his story. "Hey, why is everyone so down?" Joe piped up. "It's time for the next story." He said.

"Oh right, Ken's virginity!" Davis yelled out.

* * *

**Don't you think it's weird how Joe acts about all of this?" **Tai whispered to Patamon, who was sitting next to him. "He's always like this." Patamon whispered back. "We think he's still trying to hide his emotions from all of us."

"**Probably." **Tai said, not knowing what else to say. Meanwhile Davis was telling the story of how Ken had met the girl of his dreams. Ken got redder and redder as the story progressed…

* * *

A day later.

"We're nearing Japan." The captain said as he walked by their room again. "It'll only be about ten minutes more."

"Wanna go up to the deck?" Izzy asked. "I paid royally to get us back home, so we might as well go and enjoy the view."

"While we still can." Patamon added, stroking his beard. It had grown in again over night. "How come?" Cody asked.

"Because Izzy send an email ahead to let everyone know we're on our way home." TK said darkly.

"So our wives know when exactly we're arriving home?" Ken asked. TK, Cody and Patamon nodded.

"So they've had ample of time to sharpen their knives?" He continued. Again the three of them nodded.

"We're so dead, aren't we?" Again with the nodding.

"**Oh cheer up." **Tai said, still in his Duskmon form. He had tried a few more times to dedigivolve but all attempts failed. **"At least you guys don't have to wear a piece of plastic to hide yourself from society."**

"Be reasonable Tai, you have nine eyes. And only two of them are in your head!" Matt yelled from the computer screen. "By the way, I'm paying top dollar for any pictures of Tai wearing that garbage bag!"

Tai just grumbled and closed the laptop.

* * *

A few minutes later they were all on the top deck. A few pieces of ice were still visible but most of it had either melted or been chucked off of the ship by the crew.

"I think I can see the docks!" Davis yelled.

True to his word, they had nearly arrived at the docks. They could also see that the captain had remembered to send a message ahead to the mainland, to get an ambulance ready for their wounded medic.

"Hey, I think I can see our team from here." Izzy said as the ship stopped at the docks, before the ladder was extended to allow them to get off.

"Do they look angry?" TK asked, not daring to look.

"**Not really."**Tai said from underneath his plastic robe. It covered him entirely, leaving only enough space for one to see his face. Not that that was much, as most of it was covered by a helmet.

"That's good." Ken said as he followed after Joe and Davis, who were the first ones to go down the ladder.

"Where the hell have you been!?!" Yolei yelled from the top of her lungs. **"I could be mistaken though." **Tai grinned.

"We can explain!" Davis yelled. "Here we go again." Cody rolled his eyes.

"Hi honey!" TK yelled at Kari, hoping that she wouldn't kill him. "I'm sorry for worrying you like that."

"Same here." Patamon said. "But we're safely back home right?"

"You're home." Kari started.

"But safe? You're not!" Gatomon pulled a razorblade out of nowhere and Kari and Yolei did the same but then for a sledgehammer.

"Oh crap!" TK, Patamon and Ken yelled at the same time.

"Get them!"

Patamon then did the only sensible thing he could think off: fly off towards the ocean. At least there he had a chance to survive.

The only thing he hadn't thought off was the fact that Ken would grab him by the feet. "Faster Patamon!"

Patamon did his best to keep steady, only to nearly fall as TK made a grab at Ken's feet. So there they were, a digimon and human chain, flying a few meters above the water.

"Faster Patamon!" TK yelled this time. "Back to Belgium!"

Gatomon, Yolei, Kari and frankly all the others sweat dropped. "Guess we overdid it." Kari stated as she saw the three of them fly off towards the horizon. "Maybe just a little bit." Yolei said.

"**Think they'll make it back?" **Tai asked as Ken, TK and Patamon fell into the ocean. "They'll wash up onto dry land sooner or later." Izzy said.

"Eh… where's Tai?" Kari asked, looking at the man in a plastic cloak. **"Right here." **Tai said, pulling the hood of his cloak of, causing all there to gasp for air.

"**I can explain. Really, I can."**

* * *

That concludes this chapter. Next time: Duskmon vs. Angemon!

And relax Lowemon fans, Tai's champion level hasn't been permanently replaced by Duskmon, you'll find out what's going on next chapter or so.

Aaaah! I'm so pissed off! Something terrible happened in Belgium a few days ago and I'm still down from it. If anyone watched CNN or something like that you may have heard about it: some psycho attacked a daycare center and killed innocent children! How can anyone do something like that!!

How can anyone turn on innocent children? I just can't understand that. I hope that freak will rot in the most cramped cell around for the rest of his life!

Sorry about that but I needed to get that off of my chest, on with the reviews.

* * *

Reviews:

Lord pata: thanks, and Patamon's beard returns! Almost forgot about it ^^ thanks for reminding me

Princessjaded: yeah but hey, we need some drama, don't we? Binging time! 'Drunken Lullabies begins to play'

Vigatus: Could be but hey I was tired! And also thanks, the same in Canada.

Martiny the one and only still: Someone's happy ^^ and don't worry Taichi will get what's coming to him. Mark my words! 'evil laughter'

Beth: He's not truly corrupted, only a little bit. Why, you ask? Because I say so! And I wanted an excuse to get Duskmon in the sequel.

: hope you liked it!

Super garurumon: I did something really bad ;)

Wolfsummoner93: And were you right? I tried to be a bit original with his story.

Takari4ever3012: Indeed, happens here all the time! Nah, not really. We usually only disappear for about two days…

R&R people!


	16. Take me home

Still don't own Digimon. If I did, I would actually turn this into a new season.

* * *

Spirits of Ages

Chapter 15

"**Like I said, I can totally explain." **Tai said, holding his hands up in defense. **"I'm not Duskmon." **He said dropping the sheet of plastic to the ground. Everyone that wasn't there when he changed gasped. The digimon even seemed to get ready to attack. **"Okay, maybe I am." **Tai said casually. **"But I'm still Tai on the inside."**

Mimi calmly walked up to the corrupted warrior of darkness. She leaned in closer, to look at his eyes. She quickly found that glimmer in them, the one she'd recognize everywhere.

She let out a sigh of relief, before turning to Kari. "Can I borrow this?" She asked, taking Kari's sledgehammer from her.

Mimi then proceeded to take a deep breath. Tai didn't like where this was going.

"You idiot!" She yelled, hitting Tai on the head with the sledgehammer. Off course it wasn't lethal, not even to any human but still. It hurt like hell!

Even through his helmet he could feel the wrath of a women enraged.

"Where the hell have you been! You had us all worried!" Mimi continued to yell, blue veines starting to throb around her eyes. Joe noticed this and urged her to calm down. Which she did, after giving Joe a bonk on the head as well.

"**We went to Belgium."** Tai said once Mimi had calmed down again. He was still busy rubbing the sore spot on his head. **"Nice little country. Little bit complicated but hey, TK, Patamon and Ken obviously want to visit it again." **He indicated the lifeless humans and digimon floating by, towards the beach a bit further away.

"Anyone want to go save them?" Mimi asked as the Ken went under for a few seconds.

"Nah, like I said: they'll just wash up sooner or later." Izzy stated.

* * *

"They look like jellyfish." Little Hinata stated, seeing the washed up life forms on the beach near the docks. "They do look like jellyfish." Her father said, amazed by it all. He poked the motionless beings with his cane.

As always, well mostly always, Izzy had been right and all three escapees had washed up on shore. TK, Ken and Patamon had seen better days but they'd live. Until their spouses got a hold of them. Then they'd be dead.

After some poking at the three of them, TK was the first one to lift his head out of the sand and spit out some of the saltwater that he had nearly swallowed.

"Let's never do that again." He said as he stood up. "I agree." Ken said, rolling over on the sand. As he stood up he had to pick a piece of seaweed out of his hair.

Patamon wasn't so lucky, as he was apparently choking on something. He actually turned blue, forcing a still somewhat drowsy TK to perform the Heimlich maneuver on him.

A fish came flying out of Patamon's mouth, which then proceeded to flop around on dry land, doing his best to get away from Patamon. Heck, he'd risk dry land as long as he could get away from that digimon.

Davis sighed and knocked the fish back into the water. "Looks like your diner didn't agree with you Patamon." He laughed as the fish swam away.

"I like sushi." Patamon said, still having a bit trouble drawing breath. "But that was a bit over the top."

"But at least now we're all safe, right?" TK stated, the reason for flying with Air Patamon already forgotten.

"**Not really." **Tai said, pointing at the three angry spouses.

"Oh right, them." Ken swallowed hard. Both Kari and Yolei, knowing that their husbands were safe, picked up their hammers again. Gatomon did the same for her razorblade, pointing it at Patamon in a 'you're so dead' kind of way.

"**Nice knowing you three." **Tai said, a huge smile on his face, though obscured by the mask.

* * *

Lots of pain later.

"Hey!" The captain complained. "I called that ambulance for my crewmember, not those idiots." Those idiots being the remains of Ken, TK and Patamon. The paramedics were scooping them off of the floor. "Listen to me, that man has broken his jaw and hasn't woken up since. The only signs of life that we got out of him were when he started spiting out his loose teeth." Not a very good sign of life in my opinion.

"Okay then, we'll send another ambulance for them later." The paramedic said. **"That won't be necessary." **Tai said. The paramedic was intimated a bit by the huge cloaked figure but quickly shrugged it off. "You sure? They look rather beaten up."

"**They'll live." **Tai waved the man's feelings of worry away. **"Besides, it's their own fault."**

"Can we go home now?" Gomamon asked Joe. He was glad to see him again. One reason was because he missed Joe. A bit. And he'd never admit it. But the main reason was that Hinata was still annoying the crap out of him. Especially since she somehow found green hair dye.

"Should we?" Joe asked. "Cuddy knows where we live and she might be angry for not showing up for work." He thought for a second and counted on his fingers. "For like four days."

"Was I the only one smart enough to take a week off?" Davis asked. Joe, Izzy and Cody looked at each other, guilty looks on their faces.

Davis burst out in laughter. "I was, wasn't I?"

"**Wow, if Davis was the smart one amongst us, we all have a big problem."**

"Damn right you do!" Davis raised his fist in the air, before realizing that Tai had insulted him. "Hey!" Davis glared at Tai.

"**Just kidding Davis." **Tai said, slapping his friend on the back. Problem was that Davis went flying then as Tai had forgotten the fact that Duskmon was physically much stronger then any normal human.

Tai sweatdropped as Davis crashed into the ground. **"Let's go home now, before I crush any other friends by accident."**

"Could have done tha earlier." Davis said as he pulled his head out of the crater he had made. "Hurts like hell you know."

* * *

Some time later, in the car with Kari, Gatomon, Tai and the remains of what used to be the digidestined of hope and his digimon.

"**Kari?" **Tai asked as he looked out the window, watching the cars pass by them. **"About Mimi…"**

"You saw the veins, right?" Kari asked. Tai nodded. Strange as it may be, Kari was glad that Tai asked her about it. To her, this was proof that Tai, not Duskmon was in control of that body. "That's stage one."

"**Stage one?" **Tai asked. **"You mean there's more?"**

"Sadly, yes." Kari continued. "Her disease is a rather visual one. When her stress levels build up to high, the veins in her face become more visible, especially around her eyes."

"But at least then all she needs to do is calm down." Kari continued. "Stage two means she'll need her medication and stage three she'll have to be carried away on a stretcher." Kari said as the car turned into their exit.

Tai was a bit scared to ask more. **"Is there a stage four?"**

"Death." Kari stated bluntly.

Tai got a lump in his throat as he started to look out the window again.

"**It's weird." **He started. **"I can bring down the biggest evil in the universe, I can save the world over and over. Heck, I haven't tried it yet but I can probably stop a speeding bullet." **Tai chuckled dryly. **"But when something like this happens to someone I love, I can't do anything about it. I feel so weak."**

"It's not your fault Tai." Kari said. "Even if you were there, you couldn't have done anything. Some things… just happen."

"**Probably…"**

* * *

"You don't know how glad I am to see this place." TK said as Kari drove into the driveway. "You're just saying that because your head got smashed by a hammer." Kari laughed.

"It was a _sledge_hammer and it got smashed multiple times." TK said as his vision blurred a bit before focusing again. His eyes rolled to the back of his head as he passed out.

"**I think you may have overdone it a bit." **Tai said as he, as gently as he could, picked TK out of his seat, seeing how the digidestined of hope wasn't going anywhere soon on his own feet.

"Nah." Kari stated as she unlocked the door. "It could have been worse."

"**How?"** Tai asked as he dropped TK rather unceremoniously on the couch.

"I could have let Gatomon have her way with him as well." Gatomon's ears perked up at that as she pulled her razor blade out of nowhere, the blade reflecting the faint sunlight coming in from the window.

"**That's another thing." **Tai said before going outside. He quickly came back in with Patamon, who looked like someone had shoved him through a wood chipper. **"Got any ducktape?"**

"Nope." Kari said. "They stopped making it in 2017 after some people discovered the secret ingredient."

"**Secret ingredient?" **Tai asked.

"Ducks."Gatomon stated as she climbed on her own chair in the kitchen.

"**You're kidding me." **Tai looked at her skeptically. **"Is she telling the truth?" **He asked his sister.

Kari just nodded and tossed Tai a roll of bandages instead.

Tai walked back to the living room and began wrapping Patamon up in bandages. The whole bandages actually made it look worse then it was. Just some minor cuts, mainly around the beard area…

"**Hey!" **He yelled into the kitchen. **"If they made ducktape out of ducks, then what do they make Scotch tape from?"**

"Trust me, you don't want to know." Gatomon yelled back from the kitchen.

"**This future thing getting weirder and weirder by the moment." **Tai complained as cut off the last piece of bandage.

"Oh man." Patamon woke up suddenly. "What the hell happened?" He asked.

"**Good to see you're awake." **Tai said, sitting down in one of the chairs in the living room. **"And Gatomon happened, that's what."**

"Oh right." Patamon shook his head to clear his mind a bit. "Could've been worse." He said as he tried to stand up again, only for Tai to push him down again.

"**Stay down." **He ordered. He was no doctor but even he knew that Patamon needed some time before he could go around again. **"And how could this have been worse?"**

"Hedge clippers." Said Patamon with a weird smile on his face.

"**You're kidding, right?" **Tai actually refused to believe that. No sane women, human or digimon would do something like that to the ones the love, right?

"Sure, why not?" Patamon looked around with shifty eyes. Tai just sighed and leaned over into his chair. This had been a long day, and it wasn't even over yet.

"So what are you thinking about?" Kari asked her digimon partner. She obviously knew that there was something wrong.

Gatomon just sighed. "Nothing really."

"Gatomon…" Kari sat down next to her. "It's Tai, isn't it?"

"Yeah." Gatomon admitted. "It's just, I couldn't grasp the fact that it was Tai that came from the egg Taichi brought home." She laughed softly. "Even after that revelation, I treated him like a son. I still do." Gatomon looked up at the ceiling, seeing how they were much more interesting all of a sudden.

"But now that Duskmon showed up again, it's beginning to sink in. That I can't be a mother for Anubimon." She referred to Tai's baby form. "Because he's my brother as well."

"Was that what's been bothering you?" Kari asked. Gatomon just nodded. "Well, Tai does still need someone around to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid." Gatomon's face cleared up a bit at this.

"Maybe you should go and check now." Kari said as she stood up and gently pushed Gatomon from her chair.

Back in the living room.

"Tai, I don't think that's a good idea." Patamon said lazily.

"**I think it's a great idea." **Tai retorted.

Tai had been taking advantage of the fact that TK was still knocked out. He had strapped a missile to his back.

'**After all I still have to kill him for touching my sister!' **Inner eviler Tai laughed maniacally.

Gatomon then walked into the room, to see a laughing Duskmon and a mummified Patamon there, strapping a missile to Kari's unconscious husband.

'I think this counts as a bad idea.' Gatomon thought. She inhaled deeply. "What the hell are you doing!?!"

"**Making TK the first man to fly to the sun." **Tai said, fixing the last belt buckle and making sure it would hold. **"At night."**

"Well stop it." Gatomon ordered. "Kari might get pissed off if you blow TK to the sun."

"**Oh right." **Tai said, remembering what had happened to TK for disappearing for four days.

"**Too bad actually." **Tai sat down in his chair again, not even bothering to take of the device.

'Crash!'

"What was that?" Patamon asked, pushing himself off of the couch a bit and turned around towards the sound.

"I think Taichi got back." Gatomon said, running towards her nephew's room. **'Great, the copycat is back." **Tai rolled his eyes.

Said ocular sensory organs then wandered off to the detonation device, lying on the coffee table.

"**Must…Resist…Urge…T.-ahh!" **He tore his eyes off of it, deciding to save it for another day. After all, revenge was a dish best served when there were no witnesses around.

Tai decided to look for his nephew as well, seeing how it may distract him long enough for someone to remove that missile from TK's back.

"Ouch." He heard from the hallway. "Does returning to the real world always involve me landing face first?"

Tai laughed. **"Off course it does." **He stopped by Taichi's door.

"Who the hell are you?" Taichi said from the ground, quickly standing up.

"Duskmon!" Another voice, very familiar at that, yelled. "Choke on this!" Baromon yelled, sending a meteor at him.

"Whoa! Stop it Baromon! That's Tai!" Gatomon yelled at the champion digimon, causing him to stop his attack.

"You sure?" He asked, looking the figure standing before him. Well, standing, more like lying down with a meteor lodged into his stomach.

"**This ****burns you know." **Tai said from the floor, the meteor nearly melting through his armor.** "I excepted a warm welcome from you but this is ridiculous."**

"Sorry about that." Baromon smiled, his mask curling into a grin. "I thought Duskmon had returned to kill us all."

Baromon walked over to him and lifted the meteor with ease, before making it disappear into digital dust. "Damn, what the hell happened to you? Last time I saw you, you still fit in my hand."

"**We ran into some trouble onboard some boat." **Tai said as Baromon held out a hand to him. **"To fight I had to digivolve and then this happened." **Baromon pulled him up from the floor.

"Perhaps that's why the digivice broke." Taichi said.

"**What?" **Tai had never before heard of a digivice breaking. He had always thought of them as indestructible. He did know for sure that they were waterproof. Him washing the digivice along with his pants proved that over and over.

"Here." Taichi said, holding out his digivice, showing the crack across the center. "For some reason it started to squeal yesterday, began to burn and then it cracked."

"Mom send me and Baromon to find Gennai, while she brought you and dad back home." Taichi continued. "You reek of liquor, you know that?"

"**Did you find him?" **Tai asked, ignoring the question about his odor. He was truly interested in this. After all, this could be the reason why he changed into Duskmon.

"Not really." Baromon said. "We'd have better luck finding one of the Ancients then him."

Taichi looked at him wearily. Tai off course quickly noticed this and looked at his nephew. **"Is there a problem?"**

"What the hell are you actually?" Taichi asked. "Last time I saw you, you were just a doglike rookie. Are you Lowemon now?" He strained to remember that name. he had only heard it once or twice.

"**Unfortunately..." **Tai started as he exited Taichi's room, with clone after him. **"I am Duskmon at the moment."**

"Duskmon? And not Lowemon." Taichi said, looking the dark warrior over. He looked truly menacing. As if he could lunge at him at any given moment and rip out his throat.

Tai nodded.**"My data got corrupted for some reason, probably by your digivice and my own." **At least that was what Tai himself thought. He'd wait for the experts to correct him on that. Too bad that it would take Ken a few days to tape himself back together.

Taichi seemed satisfied with the answer and decided to drop the subject… for now. He still wanted to know more about this 'Duskmon' creature.

"**Hey, why did Baromon come along actually?" **Tai asked as they walked into the living room.

"I wanted to see you again." Baromon answered for Taichi.

"**Wow, I'm touched." **Tai said, actually meaning it. **"I've missed you too you know."**

"Oh no, not you." Baromon said. "The TV!"

Tai sweatdropped.

"Just kidding mon." Baromon said, slapping Tai on the shoulder. "You have no idea how much I've missed you. Nothing interesting ever happens without you."

"**Wow thanks." **Tai sulked. With that said Baromon sat down into another chair, looking around for the remote.

"Where's that damn thing?" He asked. "My show is coming on in two minutes."

"**Your show?" **Tai was curious about what people or digimon watched these days. After all, all he had seen thus far was the news a few times.

"Yeah my show." Baromon smiled. " It's called 'everybody loves Baromon.' It's been nominated for like five awards this year."

Tai had a tick mark above his eye. **"So you're an actor as well as an assistant to Elecmon?"**

"It's GrapLeomon now." Baromon said. "Ah I found the remote!" He picked up a small black case from the coffee table.

"**No wait that's-**

Too late. Baromon had already pressed the button.

"**- a detonator."**

Tai dove away from the couch where TK was steadily sleeping.

After a few seconds he stood up again. Nothing had happened.

"**Damned. They sold me a blank." **He complained.

"Who sold you that thing?" Taichi asked, looking the missile over. Despite the fact that it didn't launch, it was still a piece of art.

"**I have my connections." **Tai said smugly.

"Where? You've been gone for twenty-five years." Gatomon pointed an accusing claw at Tai.

"**I have **_**good**_** connections." **He stated and stopping there as he didn't want to tell them anything more then they should know.

* * *

Aaah! I hate filler! But I promise, next chapter it will be Patamon vs Duskmon: revenge of the angels!

And I apologize for the ducktape joke. I know it's been overused but I like it.

Reviews

Aldamonburst: yeah, he does

roxas24: I'll keep on going all right. Might even start a new fic sooner or later. I just need something else then BH and SoA to focus on, if you know what I mean.

PrincessJaded: they learned that today, the hard way… And Matt will return sooner or later. I'm planning on giving him a grand return. And I heard about that too. It's terrible that some people can do something like that…

Lord Pata: And it quickly disappears as well… poor patamon, he'll have to live life like a mummy from now on.

hacked account: don't worry I'll kill Taichi sooner or later ;)

Firehedgehog: apparently no one likes him. I wonder why?

Minwolf: glad you liked it and I have thought of fan explanation, which will be revealed somewhere next chapter or so, and you're on the right path.

Super garurumon: glad you liked it.

WolfSummoner93: What did you think happened to his leg? To be honest, I had a lot of trouble thinking of something plausible to happen.

Takari4ever3012: Yes, yes he did ;)


	17. Corruption vs Hope part one

THere was a disclaimer here once. It's gone now.

* * *

Spirits of Ages

Chapter 16

"_Good _connections?" Gatomon repeated. "That doesn't make much sense you know."

"**To you it doesn't." **Tai said happily.

_Flashback._

"_And this kind is responsible for the other five holes in the ozone layer."A man in a trench coat said, putting the missile down in front of DemisSphinxmon aka Tai, who was currently wearing a trench coat as well, along with a pair of sunglasses._

"_**Shuu my man, you've done it again."**__ Tai said, looking up at the blue-haired man._

_End flashback_

"**Oh Shuu, what would I be without you?" **Tai asked out loud.

"Who?" Gatomon asked, eying her big brother/surrogate son suspiciously.

"**I didn't say anything." **Tai said quickly. **"Hey what's for diner?" **He asked, wondering if that would distract Gatomon, even just for a bit.

"Well, since dad's still knocked out, I don't think we'll be eating his special casserole." Taichi said, wondering what the hell had happened to his father.

"Well, that's good news…" Patamon grumbled, trying to get up from the couch again.

"Don't get up sweetie." Gatomon said as she jumped on the couch as well. "I did quite a number on you, you know."

"I felt it alright." Patamon laughed it off.

"I only do so because I care." Gatomon said softly. "And because I hate that beard." She added.

"I know you do." Patamon said with a chuckle.

"**These two have the weirdest relationship I've ever known**** of." **Tai said, scratching his head eh helmet in confusion.

* * *

Later at dinner.

The entire 'family' had gathered around the kitchen table. Even TK sat in his own chair, though Kari had to tape him to it to prevent him from falling over.

And once again, all eyes were on Tai as everyone tried to figure out how the hell he was going to eat with that helmet on his head.

It proved to be rather anticlimactic as Tai simply removed his helmet, allowing everyone to see his face again. No one had seen it in twenty-five years after all…

"Aaahh!" Taichi yelled. "It's hideous!"

"**Shut it twerp." **Tai said as he grabbed his fork, bending it in half as he did so. **"Oops."**

"I'll get you a new one." Kari said. She stood up and got him a new fork, all the while staring at him. The face she hadn't seen in so many years.

Tai's face was exactly like she remembered it. Only difference were the two vertical black lines on his cheeks, which he had ever since he became Lowemon.

The rest of diner went by in silence, as most only sneaked looks at Tai between bites. It started to get on Tai's nerves.

"**Has everyone seen me now?" **Tai asked annoyance clear in his voice. **"How about a picture? That'll last longer."**

"Sorry." Kari said. "It still remains so unreal. To actually see your face again. After twenty-five years none the less."

"Time hasn't ravished your looks at all." Gatomon admitted. "You still look like the day you died."

"**Which one?" **Tai joked. **"I died so many times that it's no longer funny."**

"He's right about that." Patamon laughed, causing a few bandages to unwind. "But prepare to die again Tai, in two days."

"**How come?" **Tai asked, mildly interested. After all, Patamon wasn't one to issue death threats often. Except against Devimon, Myotismon, MaloMyotismon and that guy behind the counter in Star Bucks…

_Flashback_

"_You dare call this a latte?"_

_End flashback_

"I challenge you to mortal combat!" Patamon yelled, the bandages suddenly falling to the floor as he flew up from his seat.

"**Sure, why not." **Tai, picking up his glass and drank the water in it. **"Hey Mini-me, did that game console of yours cool down already?"**

"No, not that kind of mortal combat!" Patamon fell back on his chair. He quickly wished for his bandages to return as his wounds had opened up a little… that's what you get for trying to act cool.

"**So you mean, like real fighting?" **Tai eyed the rookie with caution.

"More like sparring." Patamon admitted. "You just owe me a fair fight, that's all."

"**Um, sure?" **Tai shrugged. "**Don't know why I owe you one though."**

"Let's just say that last time Duskmon was around, he cheated." Gatomon said. "And Patamon's pride was hurt badly." She smirked.

* * *

Later that evening.

"Isn't there anything on TV?" Taichi complained. "There's the news." Kari offered.

"Same as everyday." He retorted. "Which means it's bad." With that said Taichi disappeared to his room.

"**What's his problem?" **Tai asked as he rubbed the egg he found in the kitchen. BlackAgumon had been in it for quite some time and was probably pissed off at him for not busting him out of jail sooner.

"I think he's still angry about the digivice breaking." Kari said as she switched on the news.

"_And in other news: the percentage off hospitalizations has risen by nearly twenty percent this month. __A disturbing growth in-"_

Kari would have continued to listen to the man inside the box if it weren't for the fact that Tai's digi-egg suddenly exploded.

'Finally!' Botamon thought as he jumped out of Tai's hands. 'Do you have any idea how cramped it is in one of those!' Too bad for him, Tai had no idea what he was squeaking about…

"**Nice to see you too Botamon." **Tai sweatdropped, seeing the pissed off little hairball jumping up and down.

Botamon looked up at him, blinked twice, before giving the digital equivalent of a shriek and began blowing bubbles at Tai in a way of offense. 'Duskmon!'

"**Actually it's still Tai you know." **Tai said as if he had read the baby digimon's thoughts. He took off his helmet, showing Botamon his face.

Botamon had an OMG look on his face, which was quite a feat since his entire face was covered in thin fur, showing only his eyes.

"**And before you ask, I have no idea why this happened." **Tai said quickly. Apparently that was enough for Botamon as he calmed down again.

"**You're probably wondering where we are, right?" **Tai asked, looking at the baby form of his partner. Botamon nodded. **"Well, long story short: we've been sealed into eggs for the last twenty-five years and now we're at Kari's house."**

'Oh is that it? Only twenty…five…years have passed?' Botamon looked up at Tai, looked around a bit to see Kari sitting near them, looked around some more and saw Gatomon as well. Both of them had the markings of time upon them.

Botamon decided that then was a good time to get some shuteye.

"He took it rather well I think." Gatomon said, looking at the baby digimon.

* * *

Two days later.

"**So Patamon, where do you want to spar?" **Tai asked Patamon Friday morning. Hey, if he wanted a fight, then he'd get one.

"Where we fought last time." Patamon said with a mischievous look in his eyes.

"**Ehh… the park?" **Tai strained his mind to discover that fact. He vaguely remembered trees but he wasn't al that sure…

"Bingo." Patamon said as he sat down at the kitchen table.

"Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't we like blow that place up twenty-five years ago?" Koromon asked. Surprisingly it took only two days of Tai's cooking and a lot of willpower for him to digivolve into his in-training form.

"Pretty much." Patamon said. "Only one tree remained."

"Actually, MetalGarurumon froze that one." TK muttered. He too was somewhat better after two days, but he wasn't fit enough to work on his books yet. That would take him a week or two.

"**So we're sparring on a decimated wasteland in the middle of Odaiba?" **Tai asked, wondering why on earth nobody would build something on such a huge open space. Or at least plant new trees and fix the park.

"Not a wasteland." Gatomon said. "Someone replanted the entire park."

"**Really? Who?" **

"Well, you know how upset Joe was with that last frozen tree?" Patamon asked.

"**No." **Tai said bluntly. After all, most of his memory of that period were a blur.

"A long story short: one day Joe stood at the edge of the park. He pulled out a shovel out of nowhere and a bunch of saplings." Gatomon told him. "And he planted all of those trees by himself."

"**Seriously?" **Joe didn't really seem like someone that would do such manual labor. Nor did he seem like a treehugger…

Kari nodded, looking up from the newspaper, which she had swiped from TK. He fought valiantly to keep it with him but failed. "It took him nearly a year but somehow he managed it."

"**Wow." **Tai said. **"That's just amazing."**

"It is." Patamon said, finishing of his morning coffee.

"**Wait, so we're going to blow up all of Joe's hard work?" **Tai asked, getting an affirmative from Patamon. "Oh yeah!"

* * *

"This sucks…" Taichi muttered. "The battle of the century is going to commence in a park not too far away from here and I have to go to school!"

"Oh cheer up." Joni said, patting the green clad boy on the back. "With a bit of luck we'll be fighting our own epic battle against the next great evil sooner or later."

"I think that would be bad luck…" Heero said. Digimon were cool and all but he'd prefer not to send Gotsumon out against some whacked out megalomaniac. Especially since the poor chap always found someway to set himself on fire…

"See? Even Heero agrees with me." Joni said, not noticing that the poor nerd actually didn't want to agree with her. "Our day will come!"

As soon as the three kids had passed an ally someone stepped out. He had been listening in on their conversation. "That day may come sooner then you think…" With that said the figure disappeared into the darkness of the ally again, to avoid being seen by other passersby.

* * *

"Are we there yet?" Koromon asked. He was bored out of his mind. Why on earth did it take so long to get to the damn park?

"Almost." Gatomon said, looking up at the pink ball in Tai's arms. Tai had pulled on his black sheet of plastic. Supposedly to make sure he didn't scare people half to death. Those eyes of him were freaky. Especially the ones on his shoulders. Even though Tai couldn't see through them, they kept on moving around, as if looking for something.

And then there was the fact that they glared at you when Tai got pissed off…

So all things considered, Tai looked like a walking trash bag with a complaining in-training level digimon in his arms. Baromon was unable to stop laughing at him. Heck, he even gave up watching TV just to come with them.

"**Are you sure we should be going to the park to spar? I mean, aren't there people there?" **Tai asked, a bit of concern in his voice.

"There are." Davis said. "But don't worry. We'll interfere before something dangerous happens."

"Not that we'll have to." Veemon laughed. "Patamon will kick your ass from here to Albuquerque and back before you even realize what happened." The blue lizard laughed.

"**Why did Veemon come along again?" **Tai asked.** "Other then to tell me how badly I'd get beaten?"**

"Because Davis didn't want to come alone." Veemon answered happily.

"**Wow." **Tai said as he climbed over the small fence around the park. **"This place is awesome! I kind of feel bad that we'll be blowing most of it up." **True to Tai's word, the park was beautiful. Joe had really done his best.

"We're not actually going to blow it up." Patamon said, rolling his eyes. "None of my other levels have explosive techniques and neither do yours."

"**Oh yeah? Says who?" **Tai glared at the flying rookie.

"We do." Gatomon said. "As far as we've seen neither Duskmon nor Velgemon uses explosive techniques."

"**We'll see about that." **Tai said, wondering just who the hell 'Velgemon' was. **"Let's get this over with." **Tai grumbled, tossing his cape off of him rather dramatically. Slowly it drifted to the ground.

"Patamon, would you mind making this quick? I want to get back to bed." TK asked. Unlike his partner digimon, TK didn't have mad regeneration skills.

"**Hey!" **Tai yelled at his brother in law. **"Why does everyone think I'm going to lose to Patamon?"**

"Not everyone does!" Koromon yelled, jumping up and down. "Go Tai! Kick Patamon's ass."

"**At least someone has faith in me…" **Tai muttered.

"I have faith in you Tai." Gatomon said. She then proceeded to walk over to Patamon and whisper something in his huge ears. "Try not to hurt him to much, okay?" Lucky for her, Tai didn't hear that.

"Cheer up Tai, I'll be rooting for you as well!" Tai turned around. Davis was yelling from the top of his lungs and pulled out a flag with Tai's face on it. As Tai turned back to his opponent Davis bend down to Veemon's level. "I bet you five bucks he'll be wiped out within two minutes."

"You're on." Veemon whispered back.

Baromon just waved around a big blue foam hand with Odaiba Oddities, Odaiba's baseball team, written on it. He had scratched that name through with a black marker and written down 'Taimon' underneath it.

* * *

"**You sure you want to go on with this?" **Tai asked.** "After all, I'm younger then you, I'm a data type and I've got the power of supreme darkness behind me." **True, Patamon's evolutions were much more effective against virus types and Tai did have the backing of one of the very elements that made up the world around them, digital or not.

"Don't worry about me Tai, I've picked up a new trick or two since you got deleted." Patamon said, a serious look on his face.

"Let's get this started." Patamon continued.

"**I agree."**Tai said, pulling a sword out of nowhere and jumping at Patamon, slashing the air where the rookie had been.

"I didn't say 'go' yet." Patamon said from his safer spot, three meters above Tai. "Boom Bubble!" Tai easily dodged the attack. It was rather powerful for a rookie attack but way too slow.

"**Come on Patamon, we both know that such an attack can't harm-" **That was about as far as he could get as he got a Boom Bubble to the stomach, sending him flying.

"You were saying?" Patamon asked, a smirk on his face. After all a rookie had just send the corrupted warrior of darkness flying with one attack.

"**I said: My turn!" **Tai yelled as he got off the ground. Patamon had gotten him by surprise, no use denying that. But Tai would be damned before he allowed it to happen again. **"Deadly Gaze!" **He yelled, firing energy beams from his vast collection of eyeballs.

Patamon did a barrel roll and dodged them all with ease, only for him to get hit by the blunt side of Tai's sword. Tai had just used the beams as a distraction.

"That's going to leave a mark." Veemon said, rubbing his own cheek in sympathy.

"Let's crank this up a notch!" Patamon yelled, surrounding himself with a golden light.

"Patamon digivolves to…"

The golden orb turned into a humanoid form, six wings protruded from its back and then the light faded.

"Angemon!"

The angel digimon kicked off from the ground and flew towards Tai, his staff poised to knock some sense into Tai.

"**Things just got interesting…" **Tai said, bring his sword down in front of him, sending an arc of energy towards Angemon, who just knocked it out of the air.

Metal met metal as Tai's and Angemon's weapons clashed, sending sparks flying. Tai scrapped his sword along the length of the staff, looking for a way out of this lock. After all, if he just lifted his sword or stopped applying pressure he'd get one hell of a whack to the head.

Tai had a sudden burst of inspiration and let go of the sword with one hand, using his now free hand to punch Angemon in the stomach. Twice.

* * *

"I think Tai's starting to remember what happened when he was Duskmon last time." Gatomon said.

"I was thinking the same. Same situation as twenty-five years ago." Kari said. "Only this time it's Angemon, not MagnaAngemon." TK added. Not that it made much difference but MagnaAngemon was better armored then his champion form and thus Angemon might not take to the attack all that well.

"Damn you Duskmon." Angemon said. "That's the second time you cheated. Exactly the same way too." He used his wings to fly backwards, breaking the lock between staff and sword and placing him outside of Tai's melee reach.

"**He****llo… Dark digimon, right?" **Tai didn't know why but that sounded right to say at an occasion like this.

* * *

"Anyone else having a déjà vu?" Kari asked. Baromon, Davis, TK and Gatomon nodded fiercely. Well except TK. If he nodded fiercely his head may fall off.

"I'm not." Veemon said, wondering what the hell Kari was yalking about.

"Last time, you and Wormmon were put on ice." Davis explained. "Duskmon tried to kill you two and MagnaAngemon interfered. They then proceeded to fight. That battle was nearly the same as this one. Except-"

"**Deadly Gaze!" **Tai yelled as he fired off beams of negative energy, sending Angemon flying without wings.

"Never mind." Davis said. "Exactly the same as last time…"

* * *

"**I can't help but find this whole… situation very familiar." **Tai said, his left hand clenching his head. Foreign images started to form in his mind. Scars on his left arm began to burn as more memories clouded his thoughts.

"Hand of Fate!" Angemon used the opening Tai left to attack him. The fist shaped beam of light drilled itself into Tai's stomach, nearly causing him to fall to his knees. "I still owe you three more of those." He laughed.

"**Not bad… Angemon." **Tai said, removing his hand from his head. **"Lunar Plasma!" **Tai yelled, sending an arc of red light towards Angemon, who pushed himself off of the ground and towards the skies. The arc passed harmlessly underneath him, cutting down a few trees as it went.

Meanwhile, in the hospital.

Joe was happily rejecting patients with the flu, a cold or gangrene when he suddenly felt a sting in his head. "Tree senses… tingling!"

Back at the park.

"I had my fun." Angemon said. "But it is getting out of hand. Time to end this!" True, for some reason Tai was acting rather odd. He began gripping at his head every once in a while and he didn't use his left arm anymore, as if it was hurting him for some reason.

"**Oh? But we're just getting started." **Tai laughed, sending another Lunar Plasma towards Angemon.

"I'm beginning to think that this was a really bad idea." Kari said, worry clear in her voice.

"Don't worry." Gatomon said, looking up at her partner human. "Patamon won't hurt Tai for real."

Kari shook her head. "It's not that." She said. "Haven't you noticed? Tai's been clenching his left arm five times in a minute. Remember how Imperialdramon burned it and then MagnaAngemon's blade cutting his arm up?"

Gatomon did remember that. She just hadn't thought of it.

"I think that because Tai's living that battle again, he's starting to remember it." Kari continued. It did make sense. "Well either that or Duskmon is rearing its face again." She prayed that she was wrong about that.

"Angemon digivolves to…"

Angemon shone with golden light as he grew a new pair of wings and new armor was equipped along with his sword, Excalibur.

"MagnaAngemon!" The divine creature dropped back down to the ground.

"Time to finish this." MagnaAngemon said, holding his sword out towards Tai. He'd have to be quick. He had to knock Tai unconscious before something bad happened.

"**No fair." **Tai said, looking MagnaAngemon over. **"You're an ultimate now? But two can play that game!" **

"**Duskmon digivolves to…"**

That was the bad thing MagnaAngemon had hoped to stop.

Tai's humanoid body was stretched out, claws forming on his feet, a tail growing out of his spine. His armor being replaced by bone plates up to his head. Blue and red feathers sprouted on his arms.

"**Velgemon!" **Tai yelled out.

* * *

Velgemon appears! WTF is going on with Tai? Find out next chapter!

Reviews

Aldamonburst: there, happy?

Lord Pata: She's here somewhere, but where? Did you see those 'connections' coming? Lol!

Firehedgehog: 'shoots mini me corpse a few times' Serious, no one likes Taichi. And thanks!

PrincessJaded: I fear Matt will be getting back rather late, even though I enjoy writing Tai-Matt friendship moments (It's a manhug!) and you're probably right about the whole filler thing.

: I enjoyed writing those scenes. Repeat after me: 'It's fun to torture Tai' And yes, it's something like that. The entire details will have to wait till next chapter. Or the one after that one.

Depthmon: You'd better! 'shakes fist threateningly'


	18. Corruption vs Hope part two

Still not mine!

* * *

Spirits of Ages

Chapter 17

Taichi didn't know what else to do, other then to stare out the window. He should be paying attention to whatever the teacher was going on about. After all, he was going to ask all of this at the Christmas tests.

But Taichi's mind wandered off to the park. Both of his uncles were fighting there. He was rooting for his uncle Patamon more then for the other one. You know, the one who still hadn't called him by name! It was always, shrimp or twerp or his uncle's personal favorite: mini-me…

Still, he had seen Patamon fight so many times. The digital world wasn't all that safe you know.

He wondered how his other uncle fought. Could he turn into a huge killer behemoth like Zudomon or MegaKabuterimon? Or did he chose for the more humanoid approach, like Angewomon or MagnaAngemon?

"Mister Takaishi, please pay some attention to me." The teacher said. "Or do you believe that the sky over Odaiba is more interesting then math?"

Taichi opened his mouth to say something along the lines of 'hell yeah' but closed it again as he heard an explosion. Taichi looked out the window to see a huge bird fighting MagnaAngemon.

"No offence sir, but for the moment, yes. The sky over Odaiba is more interesting." Taichi answered the question, not able to tear his eyes from the sight.

* * *

"**Dark Vortex!"** Tai/Velgemon yelled as he flew straight at MagnaAngemon. He made an evasive maneuver to the left, dodging the crazed vulture like digimon.

Luckily he did that as the path in which Tai flew began to collapse onto itself, distorting as the power of darkness ripped time and space apart.

"We've got to stop them!" Davis panted a bit. He and the others had to run after Tai and MagnaAngemon as the corrupted warrior of darkness had abandoned the park and had chosen the city as his new battleground. "Veemon, you ready?"

"Always Davis!" Veemon yelled.

"Veemon digivolves to…"

Light surrounded the rookie and Davis had to take a step back to prevent the growing champion from crushing him.

"ExVeemon!"

No sooner then the name had left his mouth, ExVeemon beat his wings, propelling him upward and towards the skies.

"Remember! Just knock him out!" Davis yelled after ExVeemon. "Yeah!" Baromon yelled. "We don't want to wait another twenty-five years to see him again!"

ExVeemon nodded as he climbed higher and higher.

"This was a bad idea." Gatomon said. "No, serious? I hadn't realized that!" Koromon yelled at her. Normally Gatomon would have reprimanded the in-training digimon. But she refrained as she knew that Koromon was just frustrated that he couldn't help Tai right now. After all, who knows what would happen to him if he digivolved when Tai was in this crazed state?

"MagnaAngemon!" ExVeemon yelled at the ultimate level angel. "We've got to end his escapades quickly." He pointed at the lines in which Tai had travelled. "I'm not sure but they may disappear if we beat him."

"Good thinking!" MagnaAngemon yelled back. 'For once.' He wanted to add but refrained from doing so. Else ExVeemon might decide to team up with Velgemon to kick his ass…

"Vee Laser!" ExVeemon yelled out, the markings on his chest glowing as he send forth his attack. Velgemon easily dodged the attacks, only for MagnaAngemon to intercept him, slamming his fist into Tai's head. The bird's armored head was able to withstand the strike but Tai did feel a bit drowsy afterwards.

'**The ****scaly one packs quite a punch.'** He thought. Velgemon flapped his wings a few times, trying to make up for the loss in altitude he had suffered.

Velgemon lunged at MagnaAngemon only to be intercepted by ExVeemon, who grabbed him in a headlock.

"Mind hurrying up?" ExVeemon asked, trying to keep Tai still as he did his best to dodge the flailing wings and tail. The thing cracked like a whip and ExVeemon would prefer not to get hit by something that big, that could break through the sound barrier.

"Right!" MagnaAngemon quickly flew closer to Tai as it seemed like ExVeemon couldn't hold on to him much longer.

Velgemon snapped at MagnaAngemon. He managed to get hold of the same fist he got hit by earlier and bit down on it.

"Aaahh!" MagnaAngemon cried out in pain as the scissor like beak nearly broke his fragile fingers.

ExVeemon let go off Velgemon with one hand. He tried to use one hand to keep the vulture down and with the other he began clobbering Tai, in the hopes that he would release his friend's hand.

Velgemon did so but in the process he managed to escape ExVeemon's grip.

"**Tastes like chicken." **Velgemon smirked as much as he could, his voice sending shivers over the backs of those that could hear him.

"**But the fun ends now!" **The bringer of death yelled, his wings beginning to burn with negative energy. He slowly began to draw a huge circle on the ground, surrounding many buildings.

Kari's eyes shot open. "MagnaAngemon! ExVeemon! Stop him quickly!"

"On it!" MagnaAngemon yelled. He too had realized what attack Tai was planning. His 'Dark obliteration' technique would take nearly twenty percent of the city and a lot of innocent people, including the digidestined, down if he managed to complete it. He had to stop him, before that happened, not just for them but for Tai as well.

He wouldn't be able to live with himself if he did such a thing…

TK looked up as well. "MagnaAngemon! Hurry up!"

"Right!" TK's voice had snapped him out of his thoughts. He clenched his broken hand as he flew upwards, towards Velgemon.

"Hey Velgemon!" He yelled upwards, drawing the vulture's attention.

"I told you I learned a few new tricks, right?" Velgemon did seem to remember such a thing, but only very vaguely.

"Well here's one now!" He yelled.

"MagnaAngemon! Mega digivolves to…"

Blinding light engulfed the angel as he pushed his tired body to its limits.

Eight wings were replaced by ten as MagnaAngemon's armor changed and his head was covered entirely by a blue helmet with a golden cross on it.

"Seraphimon!!" The newly digivolved mega digimon spread its ten golden wings and flew towards the beast of darkness, who by now was starting to tremble in its bird boots.

"Strike of the Seven Stars!" Seraphimon yelled out, sending seven orbs of light towards Tai, hitting him in the chest and in the head, forcing him to cancel the technique he had started.

In the confusion of it all ExVeemon had snuck up on Tai, as much as a huge dragon could sneak up to anyone. He hovered over him and with a huge strike, he send Tai spiraling towards the ground.

Seraphimon caught him halfway and with great strength placed the bird digimon down, in the middle of the street. As he did so Tai glowed a silver color and reverted to his rookie form.

"**What… What happened?" **Tai's voice was hoarse.

"Relax Tai." Seraphimon said as he lowered back to the ground. "It's over."

"**Over?" **Tai asked as his head began to spin. **"I've done something terrible, haven't I?"**

"No, you haven't." Seraphimon said as he handed the near unconscious dog digimon to Gatomon, who was all too glad to take him from his hands. "We stopped you just in time."

"**My head hurts." **Tai muttered as he struggled against Gatomon's iron grip. "Where do you think you're going?" She asked.

Tai didn't answer, as he lost consciousness and slipped into the soothing darkness.

"He's out like a light." Gatomon said, holding her adoptive son out to Kari, who took him.

* * *

"Okay people! Nothing to see here!" ExVeemon was currently doing his best to break up the masses that had gathered around Seraphimon and Tai's battleground. "Please! Return to your homes or offices. Whichever applies!"

Not surprisingly most people followed ExVeemon's orders. After all, who would want to argue with a huge dragon that could crush you like a soda can? Not many, I can tell you that.

"Is he okay?" Koromon asked, jumping up and down out of frustration.

"I think so." Kari said. "Nothing some of TK's casserole can't fix." She laughed as Tai even in his unconscious state shuddered at the mere mention of TK's cuisine from hell.

"My casserole is legendary you know." TK defended his potentially lethal cuisine. Patamon snorted. "Yeah, it's number 5 on the most lethal weapons list."

"Number 6." TK muttered, realizing that he'd been beat. "And if you're going to be a smartass, you might as well fly home."

"I can't and you know it." Patamon said from atop of TK's head. "Going mega drains my entire reserves, so I won't be able to walk for another hour or so, let alone fly." The price of going mega for Patamon was great. Unlike BlackAgumon and Gabumon, who had been blessed with divine energy to go mega, he had to mega digivolve on his own, which meant that he could only do so when in extreme emergencies.

Today counted as one of those, in his opinion at least.

It took some time but everyone ended up safely at home. Davis and Veemon had promised to call in the evening. After all, they wanted to know how their friend was. Taking a punch like that from ExVeemon was like getting hit with a sledgehammer, fired from a cannon. Needless to say Tai would have a pretty big head ache in the morning.

Today had been a bad day for Taichi. Who knew that teachers punished you for being a smartass?

Taichi had been ordered to write down an essay of ten pages with the subject: 'Why math should be more interesting then a huge vulture planning on destroying the city.'

He had absolutely no idea how he was going start something like that.

Taichi reached into the pocket of his hideously colored uniform and pulled out his key. He opened the door to his home and threw his backpack on a random spot on the ground. It would probably find its way to his room eventually.

"I'm home!" He yelled as he entered the living room. Baromon and Korormon were there.

"Hi Taichi." Baromon said, waving at the miniature Tai.

"Baromon? Why are you still here?" Taichi asked confused. "Aren't you supposed to get back to the Primary Village?"

Baromon's mask went white. "Oh crap!"

"You do know that GrapLeomon's going to kick your ass for not getting back on time, right?" Normally Taichi would have laughed at the situation Baromon was in but he had seen what GrapLeomon could do to him. Last time he threw Baromon into what remained of Mount Infinity…

"I know." Baromon said. "But this was a special occasion." He pointed at the unconscious rookie on the couch. "Your uncle went a little bit overboard."

"Baromon, you can go home." Gatomon said as she entered the room. "Oh, hi Taichi." She greeted her nephew. "GrapLeomon needs you more then he's willing to admit." Gatomon said, pushing Baromon towards the nearest computer.

"But what about Tai?" Baromon asked. After all, Tai was the best friend he had ever had. Even after twenty-five years it was hard to find anyone else like him, digital or not.

"We'll keep you updated." Gatomon said. "Taichi, do you mind?" Taichi pulled out his digivice and opened a gate on the screen.

"Later Baromon." Taichi said as Gatomon pushed the champion level through the gate, sending him down the pathway between the human and the digital world.

"You'd better!" Baromon threatened through the TV set before heading back to the Primary Village.

"So you finally decided to show up?" Grapleomon asked as he cracked his knuckles. Baromon began to sweat as he anticipated the first blow.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!"

"Did you hear that?" Koromon asked. "Taichi, close that gate will you." Taichi did as his aunt asked. Before he did so he watched the screen and into the digital world, only to see a humanoid shape flying across the horizon.

* * *

"So, what happened?" Taichi asked as he sat down on the couch. His unconscious uncle was laying on a pillow next to his partner digimon, Koromon. Tai had some bandages wrapped around his head. "Did uncle Tai get beaten up?" He asked, just a bit too enthusiastic.

"Somewhat." Koromon said. "But if Davis and ExVeemon didn't interfere Tai would have won." Koromon said smugly, defending his unconscious partner human ehh digimon.

"And he would have destroyed half the city." Gatomon glared at the head. Actually she was exaggerating a bit. If Tai had completed his Dark Obliteration technique, he would have taken out around ten, maybe twenty percent of the city.

"Oh right." Koromon sweatdropped. He had forgotten that particular detail.

"What?" Taichi asked. "Him?" He pointed at his uncle. "Destroying the city? I knew I should have skipped school to see that!" He yelled out, only for his mother to show up behind him.

"What was that?" Kari asked as Taichi went white with fear. "Nothing!" He blurted out.

"Good." Kari said as she passed him. "Has he woken up yet?" She asked Koromon and Gatomon.

Gatomon shook her head. "Not yet, he's exhausted from what happened."

"Anyone mind telling me what happened?" Taichi asked, wondering what the hell had happened today.

"Well, let's just say that Tai's more evil side showed up." Koromon said darkly.

Taichi didn't say anything and just gave them a confused stare. Gatomon sighed."I'll explain."

Taichi was all ears.

"Again, this story took place twenty-five years ago." She started. "We had lost Tai to some evil bastard, who turned him against us." Gatomon shuddered. Those days were some of the worst of her life. Even worse then her life with Myotismon.

"Duskmon appeared in the park not much later." Gatomon continued. "Tai's mind was controlled by GearDevimon, who made him think we were his enemy. We fought him and lost terribly, until Patamon fought him and even he had a hard time against him."

"And then he kicked my ass as well." Patamon said as he dropped won next to his wife. "But he cheated."

"You'd better shut up." Gatomon said dryly, her claws shining in the light. "It was your fault all of this happened."

"Sorry!" Patamon said as he quickly got away from his loving, sometimes murderous spouse.

"Where was I?" Gatomon asked herself. "Oh right, Duskmon then proceeded to try and kill us. MetalGarurumon stopped him but it appears that Tai's mind has blocked out those memories. Until today."

"**No." **Tai's voice was heard, causing Gatomon, Kari, Koromon and Taichi to jump from the sudden sound.

"**It was… someone else."** He strained his mind to remember. **"Someone else, who stopped me.**"

"Tai, Are you okay?" Koromon asked, trying to refrain from jumping up and down from excitement.

"**I'm fine, I think." **Tai's head still hurt but he'd live. Probably…

He tried to push himself up to all fours but Gatomon was quick to stop him, by pushing him back down. "You're staying down mister." She said. "You'd think that nearly causing another apocalypse would tire you out."

Tai allowed a small smile to grace his face as he knew that Gatomon didn't mean it. After all, MagnaAngemon or Seraphimon actually, had had enough time to stop that from happening.

"**Indeed you'd think so." **Tai said as he made no more attempts to stand up. Gatomon removed her paws from his back as she noticed that he was going to stay down.

"Again, I lost my place in the story." Gatomon said as she sat down next to Tai, to make sure that he stayed still.

"**Someone stopped me back then." **Tai said. **"Though I'll have to get back to you about who." **He could see the entire scene in his mind. Only that part was a blank to him for some reason.

"Oh right, then we make a timeskip to today." Gatomon said, seeing ho she had told everything Taichi needed to know about that particular event. "Patamon's foolish spar set off something in Tai's mind, causing Duskmon to emerge once more."

"And everything went to the dogs when he turned into that vulture like thing." Kari finished the story. "You'll probably hear the rest of the story on the news."

"Fine." Taichi was used to that answer. "Wait, vulture?" He asked. "That was you?!?!?!" He pointed at his uncle.

"**What about it?" **Tai asked, looking up as his nephew stood up and continued to point at him. "Thanks to you, I have to write a ten page long essay!"

"**What did I do?" **Tai asked, glaring at his nephew.

"Because you passed by the school and distracted me!" Taichi answered, crossing his arms.

"Sure you weren't talking back again?" TK asked as he entered the room, after overhearing the discussion between his son and brother in law.

"That could have had something to do with it." Taichi admitted.

"Relax son, if you're anything like your father you'll write down ten pages without a hitch." TK laughed, only for him to hold his ribs in pain. He hadn't entirely healed from Kari's hammer attack.

Meanwhile, back at the park.

Joe had just finished his work and limped to the park as fast as he could.

"No. No… Noooooo!!!!!" He fell to his knees, gripping his head as he saw the decapitated trees there.

Back home.

"**Anyone else hear that?" **Tai asked. "Hear what?" Koromon asked.

Tai shook his head. **"Nothing."**

Tai decided to skip diner. Which was very weird, seeing how he had nearly no energy left. But on the other hand, TK was cooking again. So he may have dodged a bullet back there.

"Hey Tai." Patamon said as he landed next to Tai. "I wanted to apologize for today."

"**What?"** Tai hadn't exactly seen that coming.

"I said I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you go on a murderous rampage." Patamon said. "I shouldn't have challenged you."

"**Don't worry about it." **Tai didn't really want to hold this against Patamon. After all who could have seen it coming? That his memories would reemerge in the midst of battle? Besides, he had accepted Patamon's challenge without much complaints.

"**Just don't try to challenge me for a spar anytime soon, okay?" **Tai laughed.

"Don't worry about that." Patamon answered before returning to the kitchen.

"**Let me guess, Gatomon punished you?" **Tai said, trying to keep his face as straight as he could.

"Oh yeah." Patamon said before disappearing again. Tai sighed, waiting for the night t come so he could sleep somewhat more comfortable then right now. The lights in the room kept him up all throughout the evening, along with the voices coming from the entire house. Tai barely paid any attention to them, seeing how all he wnated right now was to sleep.

* * *

Night came rather quickly and Tai found his way to the guestroom on his own. Gatomon had tried to carry him there but he refused to allow that. He was still able to walk such a small distance, even though his left front paw hurt like hell.

Laying down on the bed in the room he positioned himself so he would lie on his aching paw. He had no idea why it started to hurt all of a sudden.

Tai decided that it was as if ancient wounds had been ripped open today. Imperialdramon and MagnaAngemon's attacks had hurt him badly that day, though he never actually experienced that pain.

Until now that is.

But the pain of his aching limb wasn't enough to keep him awake, seeing how he was exhausted from what had happened that day.

'_You seem to have lived the longest.' Tai was seeing through his own eyes, twenty-five years ago. Or more precisely Duskmon's eyes. Tai had no recollection of these events occurring._

_Duskmon was aiming his attack at Joe, who actually had lived the longest, with him being the oldest of the gang._

"_Oh crap."Joe said as he saw the blade being aimed at him._

"_That's what they all say." Duskmon said._

_Everything went slow from that moment. Duskmon charged at Joe, and Tai wished that he could look away from this. He knew that Joe had survived this, seeing how he was currently a doctor, but it was no pleasant sight. Charging at one of your best friends with the intent to kill him wasn't very pleasant either._

"_No!"_

_That one word._

_One word, that one syllable was enough to cause Duskmon to freeze up, allowing MetalGarurumon to slam into him, increasing the distance between him and the digidestined._

_Then everything went black again as Tai was forced out of his own dreamscape._

It was still dark outside, seeing how it was nearly midnight. Tai blinked a few times as he saw the moon shine in through the half opened curtains.

"**Mimi."** He whispered as he realized just who had stopped him back then.

Not that it was that much of a surprise.

He cared a lot about Mimi. He loved her, even though he hardly knew what it was like to love someone.

Tai had thought that he loved Sora before. But she was his best friend and she only loved Matt, and Matt felt the same for her.

He quickly realized that she wasn't meant for him.

Tai sighed as he rolled over, to lay on his other side. He bit back a scream of pain as his left paw began to ache again.

He knew that Mimi was willing to work on a relationship but he wasn't sure about it anymore. What if the age difference was to much? What if Duskmon appeared again and attacked her?

He'd never forgive himself.

He sighed again as he listened to Koromon's snores. For some reason it was kind of soothing to him.

He'd have to go and talk to Mimi about it. See if she meant what she said back in the hospital.

Tomorrow was a new day.

* * *

Omake

"Tree senses… tingling!" Joe yelled out. He looked around, making sure that he was alone. He quickly locked the door to his office.

"Here we go!" He pulled his digivice out of his pocket.

A green background appeared along with fractal code, surrounding his left hand. Joe made some flashy hand movements and scanned the digital code with his digivice.

"Execute! Spirit evolution!"

Armor came flying from around him, encasing him quickly into a humanoid tank like form.

"Arbormon!"

Joe then proceeded to jump through the window of his office.

Meanwhile, Cuddy stood outside the office, looking in through the glass window. "That explains so much."

* * *

This chapter was a bitch to wrote you know. Next chapter we'll find out more about what happened to Mimi and her choices.

Reviews

Depthmon: Yes. Yes he is. And no, we don't have credits. We work with tests, tasks and reports. So we work with a setup of an electrical installation, make notes and stuff of the values, ????, profit! (ignore that, to much South park lately) Basically, as long as we write down the correct crap we get points. Rather boring actually.

Firehedgehog: ah the original. Good times. I remember it like it was yesterday that I wrote the first chapter.

Minwolf: Probably because Velgemon can rip time and space apart. How cool is that! And Taichi's digivice… well see about that later.

Lord Pata: He did. Seraphimon! I like him but he hardly got any screen time, only in the third movie and only for a few seconds. So we know it's possible. And Patamon's boom bubble is strong of its own, seeing how he nearly knocked Kuwagamon down with it in the first episode.

PrincessJaded: First I was going to put that Omake in the place of Joe's tree senses. But it would be too much of a hassle to explain why the hell that happened ;)

Martiny the one and only: Actually no, it's all Tai this time. I need to get AncientSphinxmon into the story soon though.

Aldamonburst: That would be awesome! Some kind of heavily armored Duskmon form with wings and a cannon strapped on his back. But I don't think that I'd put his mega form into this.

Vigatus: Yeah but she's more into flowers and Joe just seems the type to do something like that. But that's just my opinion.

WolfSummoner93: He kicked Tai's ass. Poor Tai :)

Pure-white-angel: glad you like it!

R&R peoples!


	19. Digivolve!

Hello my loyal fans! 'chirping sounds' where the f*** did everybody go? (an Alex Agnew quote) Digimon's still not mine!

* * *

Spirits of Ages

Chapter 18

"_How the hell did I end up here?" Tai asked himself. For some inane reason, he was currently aboard a raft. On a river. Like Tai already mentioned, he didn't know how he got there._

_Gazing over the edge of the raft he saw clear blue water, raging rapidly past him._

_Another thing he noticed was the complete lack of lines on his cheecks, along with the absence of his armor. "I'm… human?"He touched his face, where before black lines had run to make sure they were really gone._

_But as he did so, he realized that he felt nothing. Nothing at all. No warmth from his own face, not the splashes of water on his face as his raft went faster and faster._

_It was all a dream._

_Tai sighed. "I knew it was too good to be true."_

"_Anyone else here?" He asked, looking up at the clouded sky. "AncientSphinxmon? Figments of my imagination representing my friends?"_

_No one answered._

"_I'm actually alone?" He asked. "That's a new one."True, as most of his dreams had been filled with talking stone lions or other weird stuff._

"_Where am I heading anyway?" He looked ahead of the river, hoping to see some destination point of sorts._

_What he saw was that the river he had been rafting on was splitting in two. Two sides, each leading away from one another._

_One direction led into a forest. A dead forest, with dead trees bowing along the river bench._

_The other direction led into a forest as well, only not as dead as the other._

_In both forests Tai recognized one figure._

_Duskmon was beckoning him, from the dead forest while Lowemon was doing the same from the other forest._

_Tai did his best to paddle to the right, where Lowemon awaited him. dream or not, he refused to end up wherever Duskmon would lead him._

_Only problem with that was that Duskmon didn't like that bit. The clouds above them turned dark as the river began to grow wild, sending Tai from one side to another. _

_Tai did his best to hang on to his raft but was quickly swept off of it by the raging waves._

_He drifted off to Duskmon's side, who's eerie laughter could be heard, echoing through Tai's head as he slowly woke up._

* * *

Tai opened his eyes. He was back home. Or at least, TK and Kari's home.

"Saturday's the only day I wake up think wow! Cause any other day is just another day no doubt!" (1) BlackAgumon sang as he jumped out of bed. Apparently TK's casserole had given Koromon enough energy to initiate an overnight digivolution. Also, BlackAgumon appeared to be immune to the life threatening components in it.

_Flashback_

"_Hmm… Arsenic." TK said to himself as he pulled out a bottle of 'atomic number 33'. "Sounds delicious!"He said as he poured the contents of it over his casserole._

_End flashback_

"**Do you mind?" **Tai muttered from the bed. **"I'm trying to sleep here…"** He may have been forced from his sleep but he still needed some shuteye, to recover from yesterday. Losing control like that did quite the number on your body.

"But Tai, it's such a lovely day!" BlackAgumon yelled right into Tai's ear, making him jump from the sudden noise. "The sun is shining, the birds are chirping."

True to the virus rookie's word, the birds outside were giving it their all.

"**Stupid birds." **Tai muttered. **"Can't a man rest in peace?"**

Tai really wished he could rest some more. His night hadn't been good at all. Flashes of Duskmon and what he did kept him up. And even in his dreams the masked demon refused to leave him alone.

Where was the time that he just turned into Lowemon? Or better yet, when he was just a normal human.

But he wasn't human. He was Lowemon or Duskmon. Depended on the occasion. When he saved the world, he was Lowemon. Whenever he became Duskmon, he nearly destroyed the city. The first time he nearly brought about the apocalypse.

Okay maybe it wasn't actually him that brought about the end of the world but he did give GearDevimon the means to do it.

He sighed. No sense thinking about the past. What's done is done.

And besides, the world didn't end twenty-five years ago and probably wouldn't for another… two, maybe three years. With everything the newsreaders were complaining about. With toxic wastes here and unexplained comas there.

He stood up on all fours and scrambled off the bed, hoping that BlackAgumon would leave him alone then. He didn't really think of this day as a good one. Hell, he didn't even think that about the time he was in now.

Tai didn't like the future. But it was his present now too.

He'd better start making something off it.

After all, not many people get a second chance like this.

But first things first. And the one first on his list was one of the thoughts that kept him up through the night.

"**Mimi." **He whispered her name as he made his way to the door, where BlackAgumon was waiting for him.

"You say something?" He asked. **"No." **Tai lied.

As Tai walked he noticed that his left paw didn't hurt anymore. At least not as much as yesterday.

"Must have been hard for you." BlackAgumon stopped before they could head into the living room. He held his hand in front of Tai, so he couldn't go further.

"**Huh?"**The sudden seriousness of BlackAgumon's voice only appeared once in a blue moon, so Tai was taken by surprise.

"Yesterday." BlackAgumon refrained from looking at Tai. "To… to lose control like that."

"**Oh that." **Tai said quietly, but BlackAgumon heard it anyway. "If you want to talk about it… you know where to find me."

"**Off course I do." **Tai gently nudged BlackAgumon. **"You live in the same room as I do."**

"I'm just trying to sound all understanding here." BlackAgumon crossed his arms. "But if you don't want to…"

Tai shook his head. **"No, it's nice to know there's a listening ear waiting for me."**

BlackAgumon patted him on the back. "Got that right buddy."

"And now that that's said, let's get some diner." BlackAgumon proclaimed.

"**Eh…it's still morning." **Tai told him, but BlackAgumon waved him off. "So what, either way I'm so hungry I could eat an Unimon."

"**Are those even edible?" **Tai asked. After all they didn't look exactly tasty, nor easy to turn into a meal. It was more likely that you'd end up as a Unimon's meal, shish kabobed upon that sharp horn.

"Who knows." BlackAgumon answered eventually.

"Are you going to finish that?" Kari asked. Tai shook his head. He wasn't very hungry for some reason. Even though he hadn't eaten since yesterday, he could barely get anything through his throat.

"You should eat it up though." Gatomon complained. "You didn't eat anything yesterday either. That's very unhealthy and if you're not careful you might pass out or something."

"Or dedigivolve back into a ball of fuzz." Patamon said, not looking up from reading his newspaper. Actually it was TK's but Patamon stole it from him.

"Or that." Gatomon admitted. Though she wouldn't mind that at all. At least then she'd have something to spoil to death again.

Tai, as if he could read Gatomon's thoughts, started on his meal again. It tasted rather bland to him for some reason.

* * *

"Are you going to stay like this all day?" BlackAgumon asked as he jumped on the couch and sat next to Tai. **"That's the plan."** Tai hated to admit it but he was a bit stumped on ideas about how he would get to talk with Mimi like this. He preferred to be able to look into her eyes when she spoke to him. when you only come up to one's knees that's a bit of a challenge.

Tai laid down on 'his' pillow and tried to block out those thoughts for a while.

"That's not what I mean." BlackAgumon said as he pushed Tai off of his pillow.

"**Then what do you mean?" **Tai asked, clearly annoyed by the rude departure off of his spot.

BlackAgumon pointed at the dog like digimon, a sharp claw hanging in front of Tai's eyes… "When are you going to try and digivolve again?" He pulled his hand away again. "Because I think you're afraid off it."

Tai narrowed his eyes.

"Are you?"

Tai didn't answer.

"Are you?!?" BlackAgumon's voice grew stronger.

"**Yes!" **Tai yelled at him. **"I am! I am terrified of what I did! Of what I can do!!"**

"Good." BlackAgumon said, sitting down next to Tai. "That's a step in the right direction."

"**Huh?" **Tai calmed down again. **"What… what do you mean by that?"**

"Remember when I became SkullGreymon? The first time." BlackAgumon asked him.

"**Off course I do." **Tai told him. "**That's something I'll never forget."**

"Then you'll remember that I was afraid too." BlackAgumon sighed. "Not off SkullGreymon, but off what I could do as SkullGreymon. So I refused to digivolve again."

"**I remember that." **Tai said, reminiscing about his time as a human. **"Piximon was the one that helped us out back then. He thought us that if you fail… you should try again."**

"That's right." BlackAgumon said. "Else you'll never be able to digivolve again."

Tai sighed. BlackAgumon was right. Piximon was right. Why did everyone always have to be right about stuff like this?

"**Okay then." **Tai sighed again. **"But if I go nuts again, stop me okay?"**

"With pleasure."BlackAgumon's mouth formed a smile, showing off his reptilian teeth.

"**Why does it feel like you're a bit too eager to take me down?" **

"You're imagining things." BlackAgumon's grin grew wider. "And besides, isn't this what friends do? Look out for each other?"

"**Especially when they're about to do something stupid?"** Tai questioned. **"Damn right." **He held up a paw, which BlackAgumon highfived against.

* * *

Moments later, the two of them were outside, in the small garden TK and Kari had behind their house. The grass waved as the wind blew across it as a few leaves from the single tree fell onto the ground.

"**Here we go then."** Tai braced himself as he opened up the gates to his internal energy reserves.

"**DemiSphinxmon"**He gritted out through clenched teeth. Lines of purple lightning began to flow over his body.

"**Digi- aah!"**

The lightning faded out of existence again as Tai dropped to the ground.

"Don't give up Tai." BlackAgumon pulled Tai up from the ground and put him back on all fours. "Try again."

"**Easy for you to say." **Tai grumbled.

He focused again, trying to find whatever it was that always triggered his evolutions.

"**DemiSphinxmon…"**

Again, the purple lightning surrounded him only more fierce this time.

"**Digivolves to…"**

Tai's eyes turned purple as he crouched down and bared his teeth. He looked like he was about to attack.

"Tai? Are you okay?" BlackAgumon didn't like this one bit. Digivolution didn't take this long normally.

But normal never came to mind when one talks about Tai.

Unbeknownst to his digimon partner Tai had fallen into some sort of trance.

_Again he drifted on the river running through his mind. And again he came to the part where the river split into two._

_This time Tai did his best to paddle to the right. He refused to become Duskmon again. Even if it killed him, he refused to accept the dark entity as part of him._

_Duskmon would never control him again._

_But to no avail as Duskmon fired off his attack, destroying the raft Tai sat on. The currents drew him closer to Duskmon, no matter how much Tai tried to fight it._

"_No!!" Tai's voice was drowned out by the raging waters._

* * *

"Come on Tai!" BlackAgumon slapped the rookie. "Snap out of it!"

"What's going on here?" Gatomon asked as she closed the door behind her.

"Good timing." BlackAgumon motioned her to come closer. "Something's wrong with him."

Wrong was an understatement, seeing how the veins around Tai's eyes began to bulge and glow purple as well as negative energy was coursing through his body, while Tai did his best to force that energy back.

* * *

"_I will not become you again." Tai muttered as he did his best not to be swept away again. "I want to protect, not destroy."_

"_**Who?"**_

_The water suddenly stopped moving._

"_What?"_

"_**I asked: Who?"**_

_Duskmon suddenly sat on the riverbank, staring at the drowning human._

"_What kind of stupid question is that?" Tai yelled at the fiend. "My friends, my family."_

_Duskmon pulled out his sword and walked on to the water, as if it were ice._

_He swung the sword down, halting it at Tai's throat._

"_**You say you wish to protect, but have you not destroyed while doing so?" **__Duskmon asked._

"_That was to protect only." Tai told him. "I won't destroy for the fun of it. I'm not a monster, like you."_

_If Duskmon was impressed by the boldness of that statement, he didn't show it._

_Instead he laughed._

"_**So you say…" **__The river began to rage again and Duskmon disappeared._

"_Not again." Tai complained as he got a mouthful of water._

_But something had changed. The river that had split into two, followed a single path again._

_As Tai suddenly went under, he felt a hand reach for his. Without knowing who it was he grasped it._

_He was pulled out of the water and onto dry land._

"_**To protect only huh," **__The figure asked him. __**"We'll see about that." **__Duskmon faded to Lowemon and back again._

"_**We'll see how long that lasts…" **__He changed into Lowemon again for a few seconds, before turning into Duskmon again. __**"Evil lies in your nature Tai. There's no denying it."**_

"_That might be true." Tai stood up straight. "I have done things I'm not proud off. Influenced by an outside source or not, it was still me."_

"_But I won't let the past influence my future anymore." Tai pointed at the figure. "So get lost."_

_Duskmon laughed once more. __**"Very well then, I'll leave. But know that I lay buried deep in your heart. There were your true darkness sleeps." **__With one final laugh Duskmon faded away and was replaced by Lowemon._

"_Glad to see you again." Tai admitted. Lowemon didn't say anything. He just put his hand on Tai's shoulder._

_After that the world around them turned white._

* * *

"Tai! Can you hear me?" Gatomon tried again. the rookie had started to relax again, the purple disappearing again. But he still wasn't responding to her or BlackAgumon.

Suddenly Tai was engulfed by a bright silver light. It forced both BlackAgumon and Gatomon to cover their eyes.

Winds swept around Tai, reaping through the lawn and then suddenly they heard him

"**Lowemon!!"**

Gatomon opened her eyes.

There stood the Warrior of Darkness, in all his glory. Armor as black as the night, decorated with the marks of the true Ancient of Darkness. Two brown eyes were all she could see in that lion's head shaped helmet.

But they were all she needed to see, to know that this was really him. Not Duskmon, not Lowemon or anyone else.

This was Tai.

"Not bad." BlackAgumon commented. "You kinda ravished the garden but that's besides the point."

"How do you feel?" Gatomon asked.

"**I feel****…" **Tai spoke with a voice no one had heard in twenty-five years. His own. **"Incredible!!"**

"That's great!" BlackAgumon shook his hand. "Welcome back to the world Tai."

"**I've been here for a while BlackAgumon." **Tai told him. **"But it is the first time I became Lowemon again." **And it only took like 18 chapters!!

Tai took his helmet off of his head and dropped it to the ground, relishing the feel of the sun's beams on his face. The twin black lines on his cheeks, the only visible trait of him being digital were visible again.

"Okay, now what?" BlackAgumon asked.

"What do you mean?" Gatomon asked.

"He must be up to something, right Tai?"

Tai nodded. **"Indeed I am." **He said as he walked back to the house and opened the door, leaving the destroyed garden and his helmet behind him.

"What then?" BlackAgumon really wanted to know.

"**First of all, know this: you and I both got a fresh start here." **He sat down on the couch. **"It might still feel like the future but it's now our present too."**

"That still doesn't tell me what I want to know." BlackAgumon tapped his foot impatiently.

"**I'm getting to that." **Tai told him. **"First off, I want to find something out."**

"And…" BlackAgumon motioned him to continue. **"After that… we'll see."**

BlackAgumon felt like facevaulting right now. Why did Tai have to be so scarce on the details?

But Gatomon easily realized what he was talking about. "You'll find your answers with this." She walked to the telephone set and picked up a small blue book. She tossed it at Tai.

"**Thanks Gatomon." **He said, turning the pages for what he was looking for. "Any time love." Gatomon said, leaving the room again to inform Patamon that his garden was pretty much destroyed. But at least now he has something to do for the next few days.

Tai soon found the page he was looking for. **"Got it. See you later BlackAgumon." **He told the reptilian digimon, before heading out to the door. He picked up his 'cloak' and put it on as he didn't really want to scare the crap out of people on his way.

"Hey! What about me?" The rookie asked.

"**Sorry but this is something I've got to do alone." **Tai said as he opened the door.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the garden.

"What the hell happened here?" Patamon was in shock.

"Tai kinda digivolved here and accidently tore the place apart." Gatomon told him.

"What?" Kari asked. She was surprised that she hadn't heard any of that.

Gatomon nodded. "You heard me. He digivolved. But the good way this time."

"So he's Lowemon again?" Kari asked.

"Oh yeah." Gatomon told her. "Want proof? Look over there."

Amongst the rubble of the garden, laid one object as black as the night.

Lowemon's helmet.

Kari picked it. She traced a finger over the lines.

"So… where is he?" She asked the cat like digimon.

* * *

Meanwhile somewhere else.

"Coming!!" A woman's voice was heard after Tai rang the door bell.

While it wasn't visible on Tai's face, he was nervous. This was it.

The sound of the door being unlocked sounded through the air and moments later the door opened.

"Oh? Hi Tai!" An enthusiastic voice called his name.

Tai cleared his throat. **"Hi Mimi. Can I come in?"**

"Off course." She said. "Come on in."

* * *

And that concludes this chapter. I wanted to make it longer and put in some bits about Mimi's life, since Legionmon's defeat, like I promised. But I couldn't fit it in, so that'll have to wait for next time.

AN: 1: that's part of a Belgian song from the band 'the underdog project'

PrincessJaded: more michi next chapter! Though I'm not all that good at romantic stuff.

Martiny the one and only still**: **don't worry. I bet more people didn't know till the last bit ;)

Depthmon: yeah, but we also have GIP's. I don't know for sure but I think that's worse too. I work in a four man team on a project. I work my ass off to make proper schematics, to find good information and make it all look presentable and when the teacher reviews it he can't say anything positive about it…

Lord Pata: that's just a joke, though it would be funny as hell to use in the final apocalyptic battle 'vision: Joe fighting unnamed evil using the spirit of wood!!' Nah, to much work. And you're right. Seraphimon and Magnadramon could have pwned him easily. Though I'll admit that Magnamon is my favorite armor digivolution and I was glad to see him in the movie.

DarknessServant/LoyalFan: Patamon is just that awesome ;) And about the minions… I'll think about it. 'another vision: So master, what will we do tomorrow?- the same thing we always do. We try to take over the world!!'

WolfSummoner93**: **Joe rules, with or without spirit of wood ;) And yes. Keep TK the hell away from your kitchen. Else you might not live to tell the tale.

**:** Joe loves his trees  I'm a tree person too, though not a tree hugger or anything.

Firehedgehog: unfortunate my love, he's still needed for the story. But hopefully not for long.

R&R my loyal fans!!


	20. Evil shows itself

I still don't own digimon, but I do own a brand new degree in elektrical installations!

* * *

Spirits of Ages

Chapter 19

Tai walked through the open door. Mimi closed it behind him and led him to her living room. Mimi lived in a rather small, yet warm apartment.

"I didn't really expect to see you so soon." She started as they both said down on the couch. "Especially not after that stunt you pulled."

"**So you saw that?" **Tai asked nervously.

"A bit hard not to notice." Mimi smiled. "It was on the news. "

"**I don't know how many times I've made the news." **Tai admitted. **"I think the last time was with the grave robbing incident."**

Mimi raised an eyebrow, as she tried to remember that particular incident. "Oh right, with your digivice…" She realized.

"**Yeah…" **Tai was feeling a bit awkward about this whole situation. Or maybe it was because they were discussing one of the freakiest events of his life.

And that's saying something, seeing how he had died like… a lot, been resurrected about as many times, saved the world a few times from evil patchwork digimon and who knew what else was to come? (AN: even I don't know.)

A rather awkward filled the room as both occupants were thinking about what to say to the other. Over the years Mimi's feelings hadn't changed much. Sure, she had tried to move on. Even she knew that Tai wouldn't want her to stay by herself, waiting for him to return.

She had tried to let go off Tai and thus had a few relationships, some serious. Some not.

But all those guys had one major flaw.

They weren't Tai.

"**So…" **Tai tried again. **"How's life been since?" **The 'Legionmon' part didn't need to be said.

"Oh… calm." Mimi said, smiling gently. "Boring actually. No inter dimensional threats or anything like that."

"**You call that boring?" **Tai laughed. **"Hell, I'd kill for that. No destiny or something like that."**

"Trust me, you'll miss it sooner or later." Mimi stated. **"Yeah, you're probably right." **Even though Tai did nothing but complain about his hectic life he really couldn't imagine how his life would be if this all never happened.

But there is no use thinking about what could have been.

25 years ago is history. Tomorrow was still a mystery. And today was a gift. That's why they call it the present.

"**Mimi, I… I…" **Tai didn't know how to formulate this correctly.

"**For me, this whole twenty-five year long gap feels like nothing."** He found the correct words eventually. **"It's like I went to sleep and woke up just now."**

Mimi nodded. She realized that fir Tai that must have been quite a shock. Can you imagine going to sleep one night and waking up in the future?

"**So to me it's not been that long since Davis interrupted our last 'get-together'." **He smiled as he recalled that memory. Poor Davis always had the bad luck to barge in at the wrong times.

"Oh yeah…" Mimi said, remembering that all too well. After the fight she had given Davis a nice bump on his forehead to match the one Yolei had given him.

Mimi stood up. She took Tai's hand and pulled him up as well. "I still owe you something from back then." She said before moving closer. She kissed him passionately.

As she broke the kiss, Tai was a bit dazed. "That's a good luck kiss in advance, if you happen to stumble upon some new dark warlord when I'm not around."

Tai didn't know what to say to that.

"But let's just hope they stay far, far away from here." Mimi added as she sat down again. Tai stayed standing for a while, before realizing that he looked rather silly like that. He sat down again as well.

"**You think we can still like… you know?" **Tai didn't know how to phraseit.

"The fact that I just kissed you, even though you 'look' twenty-five years to young for me, should be enough proof of that." Mimi told him. "But I'll let you take me out on a date just to make sure that you get it."

"**Done." **Tai blurted out. **"Where to?" **He asked.

"Surprise me." Mimi said with a smile on her face as she stood up to get her coat.

"**How the hell am I supposed to do that?" **Tai asked himself. **"I barely know any places around here…"**

"Relax Tai." Mimi said as she came back. "You didn't think I'd send you off like that? Come on, I know a nice place around here." With that said the pair left the small apartment.

* * *

"Here it is…" Mimi said, waving in the general direction of a small café somewhere in Odaiba. He vaguely remembered it.

"**Wait, isn't this the place…" **Tai started.

"Correct." Mimi said. "You all got drunk here but contrary to popular belief, decent people go here too."

"**I don't think I should show my face over here anymore…" **Tai said as Mimi took his arm and dragged him in. "Oh relax Tai. Weren't you stuck as a rookie when you first got here?"

"**Right." **Tai had forgotten that little detail. Who wanted to remember that the first time you 'really' got drunk off of your ass was when you barely reached up to people's knees?

Mimi quickly found a place to sit, a bit out of sight. Tai always tended to draw a lot of attention. Especially on the streets. Mostly because of the fact that you couldn't look next to him, with the huge black cape and huge brown mop of hair.

But here it was quiet and nobody looked or stared at him. Nor did anyone seem very surprised that Mimi had shown up with a man half her age.. Either modern day society was a lot more accepting of these kinds of relations or they thought he and Mimi were related or something…

Whatever it was, they could talk in peace as they were left alone.

"So tell me…" Mimi started as soon as the drinks arrived. "How did you wind back here in the real world." She had heard parts of the story but she wanted to hear it from the source.

"**Well, that's a long story actually." **Tai started.** "But it started a few months ago I think. Mini me, Kari's kid, showed up in the Primary Village. He was there to pick up a digi-egg. Unfortunately or fortunately, depends on how you look at it, he picked up me."**

Mimi nodded as she took a sip of her coffee. It was burning hot, as it should be.

"**About that time I became aware of stuff again." **Tai continued. **"It was like those twenty-five years were spend in a deep sleep or a coma perhaps. But all I knew was that somebody with the same name as me had taken me home. Also, I thought he had some crazy cat lady as an aunt."**

Mimi nearly choked on her coffee as she heard that. She laughed and coughed at the same time.

"**Hey! What was I supposed to think? Some aunt 'gato' was going to take care of me." **Mimi continued to laugh. **"I was scared out of my wits!"**

"Don't worry about it." Mimi told him. "I'd be scared too." Though she didn't really seem to mean that. The wink wasn't really helping her credibility either.

"**No, seriously Gatomon is obsessed."** Tai told her. He looked down and stared into his coffee, before drinking some of it.

"Oh you poor thing." Mimi said.

"**Nah, I'll live." **Tai said.** "And she's better now, at least she doesn't insist on accompanying me everywhere anymore."**

Tai did check the room at that moment, to make sure that Gatomon wasn't hiding amongst the other customers. He wouldn't put it past her to do something like that.

"**But enough about me." **Tai said, trying to get the conversation going again. **"I want to know how life's been for you."**

"Rather dull actually." Mimi said. "No demonic entities raining apocalypse upon us or anything. Got even worse after the virus."

"**Virus?" **Tai asked. **"Oh right nearly forgot about that." **He said, scratching the back of his head.** "You don't have to talk about it you know."**

"I know that." Mimi said as she finished her coffee. "Can I have another cup please." She said to the resident waiter before returning her gaze to Tai. "But you deserve to know about this and I prefer that you hear it from me, then from someone else."

_Flashback_

"_The three of you stand accused of engineering biological weapons, the use of said weapons, disrespect to human life and overall crimes against humanity itself." The judge spoke slowly. "The evidence is overwhelming and I have no regrets in sending all of you to prison for the rest of your natural lives." With a symbolic knock of the hammer the judge confirmed his statement._

"_But we didn't do anything wrong!" One of the perpetrators yelled out. "It was only a matter of time before someone thought of this weapon." The other added._

"_You should be glad it was us, not them." He continued, by them meaning the rest of the world._

"_That does not justify your actions." The judge commented. "Many lives were lost and many more were ruined because of your sick little experiments."_

"_Collateral damage should never stand in the way of development." The third scientist spoke up for the first time as the officers shackled him._

"_If you consider 18 adults and 3 children collateral damage then you are fouler monsters then I imagined."_

_(1)_

_End_

"**Wow, what a bunch of pricks." **Tai stated the obvious. Mimi nodded. "Indeed."

"**But at least they'll never see the light of day again, right?" **Tai offered.

"A minor consolation if you know how many people were killed by their actions." Mimi said bitterly. She remembered it all too well: the chaos, the panic, the minute that her heart had actually stopped beating because of the virus. Luckily for her the paramedics managed to get her heart working again.

"**True." **Tai admitted. People like them made him regret saving the world sometimes, just a little bit. Were their actions all that different from what Myotismon or Legionmon itself did? Off all the evil they fought only Apocalymon had an actual reason to try and destroy them.

* * *

"And then we eventually found the three of them tied to a flag post." Mimi concluded her story of TK, Davis and Ken's graduation party. She had decided that after the whole drama stories weren't really all that important. There was nothing he could do about it anyway, she thought. So instead she shared the better memories.

"**Tied to a flag post…" **Tai repeated her and Mimi nodded to confirm. "You heard me."

"**How did that happen?" **Tai was confused. He expected stuff like that from Davis but Ken and TK? No way.

"Nobody knows, not even them." She shrugged. "Maybe that's for the best."

"**Damn, quite a bit I've missed." **Tai would pay good money for a picture of that but even more just to be there in person. Not just for that but for everything he missed.

There were so many things he had missed… graduation, weddings, births, yes even that of his nephew he regretted missing. But only a little bit.

"Tai? You okay?" Mimi pulled him out of his thoughts.

"**Yeah I'm fine." **He said. "You spaced out for a while there."

"**No need to worry." **He said. **"Happens all the time lately."**

Tai stared out the window for a second or two. **"How long have we been sitting here?"**

"How come?" Mimi asked. "Bored with me already?"

"**Off course not."** Tai defended. **"But it's already dark outside…"**

"Huh?" True to his word it was dark outside. Not as dark as at night cause they could still see the sun shining but it was as if there was a huge shadow over them and their café.

"Something 's going on here." Mimi said, checking her watch. "It's barely three in the afternoon."

"**I've got a bad feeling about this."** Tai stood up from his seat. "Here we go again…" Mimi sighed, paid the tab and asked the boss a question. "I don't suppose they said anything about an eclipse in the news, right?"

The bartender, a big man with moustache and beard answered. "Not that I know off and even if it was." He pointed at the still visible sun. "That would be one odd solar eclipse."

"**Serious, something's going on here." **Tai said as he scanned the streets around him. **"There's supposed to be people around here."**

"Especially at a time like this." Mimi added as she stood next to him.

A cold breeze blew through the street, the only thing that they heard was the sound of leaves rustling and eerie whistling of the wind.

"I think we should get going." Mimi supplied. "I'd rather not wait for something to happen…"

"**You and me both." **Tai said as his gaze met the street again. **"Pretty crappy ending to a date, right?"**

"I've had worse." Mimi admitted as she took Tai by the arm. The two headed off.

But as they moved the sound of the wind became louder. And louder.

Eventually it was joined by the sound of marching feet. An even tempo that seemed to be heading their way.

"What is that?" Mimi asked, looking around to find the source of the sound. But it was no use. It came from everywhere, echoing through the normally populated streets, which were empty now.

"**This can't be normal." **Tai state the obvious. **"We should keep moving." **

The marching became louder and no matter what street they turned into it wouldn't stop…

"Where the hell is everybody?" Mimi asked, though not expecting an answer from her companion. Even through the windows of the building around them they didn't see any signs of life.

The two of them eventually ended up on a crossroad, which was as void of life as the rest of the city.

"**Something's seriously wrong here." **Tai said, turning around a few times. **"Unless it's normal for people to disappear like this."**

The marching sounds become louder.

"**No way."**

From all four streets flooded a huge mass of people.

"You've got to be kidding…" Mimi whispered as they stepped back and into the middle of the road.

They had appeared out of nowhere. Hundreds and hundreds of people. A huge circle around them was quickly formed.

Hundreds of pair of eyes. Dead, staring eyes watching their every move.

"**Something else new to the future?" **Tai asked. He was only joking when he was talking about zombies before.

"This is new to me as well." Mimi said, standing back to back to Tai. "Wish I had brought Palmon along for the ride."

"**No kidding." **The mass of people weren't moving anymore, but they formed an impenetrable wall of human beings. **"Where's BlackAgumon when you need him?"**

Tai waited. He waited for the humans to strike first. After all, that was why they were here, right? People didn't really gather like this unless something was going on like an Iron Maiden concert or when they form an angry mob.

"**Why do we always end up in situations like this?" **Tai complained, crossing his arms and sighing. "We attract trouble?" Mimi suggested.

"_Well well well." _A voice was heard. _"What have we here?"_

"**Who's there? Show yourself!!" **Tai growled as he looked around, searching for the source of the voice.

Like the red sea before Moses the sea of people parted, allowing a single humanlike figure to step through to them.

It was a man, or so they thought. He wore a suit like you'd suspect on a lawyer, a bodyguard or something like that.

But it wasn't the outfit that drew Tai's attention.

The figure that was walking to them had no face!! It was just blank, as if someone had stolen his eyes, nose and mouth.

The man stopped a few meters in front of him.

"**What the hell are you?"**

"_Now Tai, is that how you greet old acquaintances?" _The man spoke without twitching a muscle. _"We all missed you."_

"_Yes, we all did." _The hundreds of people spoke in unison.

"This is creeping me out." Mimi said.

"_Sorry about that." _The man said. _"Happens sometimes. But we are not here for you, though we'll meet up later... Eventually. After we finished off your pet here." _He pointed at Tai

"**What the hell are you talking about?" **Tai growled. **"What did I ever do to you?"**

"_You don't even remember?" _The figure asked. _"We thought we made a rather… lasting impression on you. But perhaps you'll remember this?"_

His face began to crack open like it was made of porcelain but it didn't shatter. Instead four cracks opened up, revealing two yellow eyes and two blue ones.

"**No way." **Tai muttered, stepping back and bumping into Mimi. "We destroyed you!!" She too recognized the voice.

"_You two seem to have failed to realize, that I am pure power!!" _The man yelled. _"I am pure energy and energy can't be destroyed… It can only take on another shape, transform if you will."_

Tai cursed under his breath.

"_After all…we are Legionmon." _The man spoke, two distinct voices clearly audible now.

"_FOR WE ARE MANY!!!!" _The crowd spoke, their voices carrying through the entire city.

* * *

Damn that took me long enough. I apologize to all my faithful fans for the long delay but it was because of my tests, final project and stuff. Though it did pay off :) I was one of the best for my final project and I got 72% on my report card, which places me in the top four of my class (only four people had above 70%)

Also I'd like to add that I'm a guy and perhaps that's the reason this somewhat romantic chapter sucks. I prefer action scenes, which will be what you get next chapter :)

Author notes

**(1) I know that in real life justice isn't dispensed this way but I wish it would be. Seriously, in my country you can go into some random place, slaughter everyone inside and get a incarceration that lasts about ten years. Now it takes about two to three years for courts to fell a judgment and thanks to the freaking 'wet lejeune' all the time you spend waiting for a trial to finish is doubled and retracted from your eventual jail time. So from those ten years remain only four to six and with good behavior you can get out after two thirds of your punishment… I hate Belgium**

Also, guess which two movies I watched before writing this chapter ;)


	21. We are Many

Spirits of Ages

Chapter 20

"**It can't be, I destroyed you!" **Tai pointed at the laughing man. **"Me and BlackAgumon did so…"**

"_Ah yes, the standard 'desperate final attack' fueled by some long forgotten power source." _Legionmon recalled. _"Stung like hell." _Legionmon spoke in one voice before shifting to another.

"_But it wasn't enough." _The deeper voice said. _"We kinda destroyed ourselves actually."_

"**Sure, that huge gaping hole down the middle of you didn't have anything to do with it." **Tai scoffed.

"_That set everything off yes." _Legionmon spoke. _"After that everything and everyone we absorbed decided to abandon ship. We ripped ourselves to pieces"_

"Sure you did." Mimi said, rolling her eyes. "Face it, we digidestined were to powerful for the likes of you." She said smugly.

"_SILENCE!!" _Legionmon's new army yelled out in unison, the sheer volume of their voices nearly causing them hearing damage.

"_So we decided to find a new way to conquer all life." _Legionmon continued while his group calmed down again. _"Instead of every creature combined into one, we modified GearDevimon's control to fit our needs…"_

"_Entire armies of humans controlled by one single entity, namely us."_

"You're nuts." Mimi said as she stared at the people around them. So they were all being controlled by Legionmon? That explained why they were acting like this.

"_Can you see it before you?" _Legionmon continued. _"Massive groups of humanoids, spread across the country. Sleepers just waiting to spread out and conquer this country!!"_

"**Humanoids?" **Tai asked. **"Odd choice of words."**

Legionmon laughed as they took a few steps back. _"You can't really call them human anymore."_

As if on command, two people stepped forward, one old man with a long white beard and a middle-aged women.

Tai involuntary stepped back and pushed Mimi behind him. **"What's this?"**

"_Something we experimented on."_

The women's right hand and the man's left hand began to wrap and twist until they formed something akin to a dragon's head. The man had a skull where his hand was supposed to be and the women had a metal head on her arm.

"This can't be good." Mimi said, her voice shaking a bit by this blatant sin against nature and the laws of physics. Without warning the mouths of the dragons opened and fired off a blast of fire.

Luckily Tai had thought ahead, summoning his shield in case something like this would happen. He easily stopped the attack. The force of the twin attacks only pushed him back a bit.

Legionmon looked a bit disappointed by this.

"_Well, obviously they're not as powerful as their digital counterparts." _Legionmon complained. _"It's a good project, it just needs some more experimentation." _

"**Experimentation?" **Tai asked angrily, noticing that Mimi shuddered at the mere mention of experiments. That was what got to her as well. **"You see these people as guinea pigs?!?" **Tai uttered in disbelief.

"_Off course, what else are you people good for?" _Legionmon laughed. _"There's so many of you. And world domination isn't achieved by sparing lives… some were sacrificed in the name of progress." _The man and women retreated back into the crowd, their reptilian appendages fading away again. _"A few experiments work better than others. Remember Seadramon?"_

"**What?" **Tai summoned his spear and pointed it at Legionmon. **"What do you mean?"**

"_Doctor Isaac was one of my better experiments actually. He was the only one that managed to fully transform. Perhaps because of our prolonged contamination."_

Tai didn't know what to say.

"But that was a week ago, how long have you been here then?" Mimi asked.

"_Not so long really…" _One voice spoke slowly. _"It took us a while to get into this world and find a suitable host."_

"_We broke through the barrier separating our worlds." The other voice continued. "We leeched onto some poor fleshbag that stumbled upon us."_

_Flashback_

"_What the hell is this?" A man with blonde hair said. He had heard a bang before but found nothing. _

_Yet he felt like something was in this alley… something creeping around, waiting for the right time to strike…_

_It was probably some rat scuffling around._

_Or so he hoped._

_He turned around, walked out the alley._

_And then everything went black…._

_End flashback_

"_Our bond with GearDevimon left us with some interesting abilities." Legionmon said. "We can posses people and wear them like a suit. Just like you humans we can switch in and out of these 'clothes' as often as we want."_

As to demonstrate Legionmon's host's face returned to normal. Tai recognized him as the man who tagged along with Sora, Tyrone or something like that.

So that's where he disappeared too_._

"_Our powers are limitless, yet limited."_

Legionmon's voice came from behind them. Tai and Mimi turned around to see a women with four eyes now.

"_We are everywhere, yet nowhere."_

"_We are all yet we are no one."_

The mass of people came closer and closer.

"_We are eternal, never ending."_

"_We are Legionmon."_

"**I'm sick of hearing you talk!!" **Tai yelled out. **"Shut up!!" **He slammed his spear down into the ground, breaking apart the ground beneath his feet.

The march of people stopped suddenly.

"**I'm sick of this!" **Tai cried out , pulling his spear back out and pointing it at Legionmon's current form. **"What is it with you evil digimon and your persistency?"**

"Kind of reminds me of you." Mimi said, joking because of the nerves. While it wasn't showing on Tai's rage filled face she felt that he was scared.

"**Can't you all just leave me alone!!" **Tai's eyes started to turn red. 'De-t-oy…' His head started to hurt.

'Destr-y' The voice of Duskmon started to sound through his head again.

'**No…' **He suppressed the voice as he calmed down again. Mimi had placed her hand on his arm again. Perhaps that was helping him a bit.

"_Oh Digidestined of Courage… Why must you make all of this about you again? Have you ever thought of us? How we feel when you foil our plans?" _Legionmon asked, Lucemon's calm voice sounding almost hurt. Almost.

"_We feel… Disappointment. Anger. Rage. Rampant fury, just waiting to be unleashed upon those who tried to stop us, namely you." _Again this was Lucemon's voice though it sounded a lot more venomous now.

"_We will tear you, your family and everything you love apart. Just because we can…" _Myotismon's voice this time.

"**Raaaaaaahhhh!!" **That was too much. Tai had had it with these bastards. Nobody threatened his family (except the clone) like that and got away with it. He jumped forward, grabbing the women by the throat, easily lifting the female off the ground.

Legionmon just smiled.

And then began to laugh.

"**What's so funny you bastards?" **Tai growled out.

"_You haven't been paying attention, have you?"_

Legionmon's hand found its way to Tai's arm, and wrapped around it. Tai had no idea what it was doing until…

"**Aaaaaahhhh!!!" **Tai cried out in pain and dropped the mega level digimon to the self dropped to the ground as well, his body twitching a few times before he got up again. Only to drop down again.

"Tai, are you okay?" Mimi rushed to his side to help him up. **"I feel like I got hit by a truck."**

"_Hmm…. Still not enough kick to take out a champion level digimon… though you're an exceptional one off course…" _Legionmon pondered along with the standard evil 'chin-stroking'

"What are you talking about?" Mimi demanded as she managed to get Tai somewhat steady on his feet.

"_I am pure energy… I am like what you call a battery. No, a generator! A source of near infinite power. A mutation from all of those digimon's powers that we absorbed." Lucemon's voice spoke."It's like what you call electricity."_

"_That blast went straight through your core. It would have reduced a mere human to ashes." Myotismon informed them. "We checked."_

"**You… monsters…" **Tai struggled to get up but only managed to get to his knees. **"How dare you abuse innocent people like that?"**

"_Because we can." Myotismon said. "Who's going to stop us? You? Not a chance. You can barely stand right now after a single blast." _Legionmon stretched their hand towards Tai. _"Who knows what'll happen with two?"_

Tai just glared at the creature, his gaze piercing Legionmon's, who stalled for a second, lowering their hand. A grin formed on their face, indicating that they were up to no good.

"_But perhaps we are acting to rash."_Lucemon said. _"Indeed." _Myotismon this time. The women turned around and appeared to have a discussion with herself.

"_You know what?" _Legionmon turned around again._ "We'll make you a deal." _They said, two voices at once. _"Perhaps we were a bit too quick to threaten everyone you love."_

"**What?" **Both Mimi and Tai said at the same time.

"_Indeed." _Legionmon continued. _"For some reason you seem to thrive on the fact that you fight for your family. We know you can hold a lot of power when you have too."_

Tai didn't like where this was going.

"_We're offering you a deal." _Legionmon said again. _"We could use a general, a powerful being to command our troops."_

"_Even we can't be in every place at once." _Myotismon's voice grumbled.

"**You still want me to join with you?" **Tai asked in disbelief. He was at their mercy. All the time they were wasting by talking only helped him recover from that blast. Were they that confident that he'd join them? Or just that desperate?

"_As you know doctor Isaac went a bit nuts after separating too far from us, taking on his mutated form and rampaging through the seas… We are limited. In range that is. We will take this world, one way or another but the best way is an all out assault, all sides at once."_

"_We can't do that the way we are right now." Lucemon's voice this time._

"**What's in it for me?" **Tai asked as he regained his footing, the pain of the blast already numb as his superior digital body caused it to fade faster then normal.

Mimi stared at him, not believing that he'd even consider their request.

Legionmon however was overjoyed. As far as the collective minds of all evil can be joyful.

"_We are evil but we are generous." _They started. _"We will allow your friends and family to stay sentient, allow them control."_

"_In other words, we will leave those you love alone." Lucemon's voice again._

"**All those I love?" **Tai asked, his voice sounding just a tiny bit eager.

Legionmon just nodded.

Mimi still couldn't believe he was considering this, at all. They had defeated Legionmon before, they could do it again, new form or otherwise.

"**Well… you know me. I would do anything for love." **Tai started, picking up his spear. **"But I won't do that!!!" **

He leaped forward, grasping the women by the throat, only for Legionmon to leave that body again and take that of Tyrone, Sora's bodyguard, again.

"_Pity…" _Legionmon said. _"You're sure? Think off the power! Think of the fear you'll instill in the humans that last long enough to feel fear before we forcibly add them to our forces."_

"**That's just it." **Tai said as he lowered the women again. **"My friends, my family… they would feel the same fear…"**

"_A pity." _Legionmon said. _"Truly a pity. But if you won't join us we'll have to get rid of you."_

An unheard command was given to the people surrounding Tai and Mimi. Amongst them a few began sprouting odd and misplaced digital features. Claws, tails, heads, some even become entirely digimon, except for a human arm or leg here and there.

"**Perhaps we should have joined him after all." **Tai joked as he stood back to back with Mimi.

"Nah, evil general of Legionmon isn't really a title you'd bear with pride Tai." Mimi said, relieved that Tai's apparent hesitation and interest was nothing more than stalling. You'd never know what a person would do to protect those he loves, even if it means betraying his own morals and identity.

"**Nah, it could work. Would fit great with my other titles. Digidestined of courage, savior of the world twice over, general of eternal evil… okay perhaps not." **Tai said before punching a man that came to close for comfort.

"Indeed." Mimi said. "You mind me borrowing this?" she pulled Tai's spear out of his hands and swung it around, hitting a half man, half Ogremon besides the head.

"Now where was I?" Mimi asked herself. "Oh right, you can't be evil, even if you wanted too. Hell, even when you weren't thinking straight you refused to be evil."

"**True." **Tai said, using his shield to knock back a small closely bunched group of people resembling Mushroommon. **"Where did you learn to use that spear anyway?"**

"What? This?" Mimi asked, shoving the blunt end of the spear into someone's stomach. "I needed a hobby." She said.

* * *

Legionmon was still standing in place. It wouldn't take long before the two digidestined would tire out. The human was sick and frail, so she wouldn't hold up very long. Tai on the other hand was strong, fast and could easily hold off the creatures.

But why play fair when you can cheat?

"_We give you one more chance Tai. One more chance. We'll even overlook this insolence and hold to our previous terms." _They tried again.

"**No thank you." **Tai said to them. **"I'm taking you down once and for all.**

"_Very well then." _Legionmon just waved his hand, sending the minions closer and closer.

* * *

"You still good Tai?" Mimi asked, panting softly. She was getting tired, stress was getting to her and if they didn't get out of there soon she'd die, wether through Legionmon's fault or her disease.

"**I can go on for hours." **Tai boasted, smashing two heads together.

"_She can't you know." _Legionmon said eerily. **"What?" **Tai turned around to see Legionmon stand in between him and Mimi. How the hell did he get there?

Tai was distracted long enough for another man of Legionmon to sneak up to him, poise a claw like hand and strike!

Tai looked down, to see a malformed hand sticking through his stomach. He felt cold but he just ignored it and used his elbow to hit the minion in the jaw, sending him falling backwards, with a few loose teeth.

"**Was that it?" **Tai asked. He'd live, something like this couldn't kill him. It stung like hell but he was still a digimon, he wouldn't be taken down that easily.

"_No." _Legionmon said as a steel claw suddenly pierced through Mimi's stomach and travelled through and out her back. She had been distracted by the conversation behind her, and because of fatigue and her sympthomes appearing again she hadn't seen it coming.

"**No!!"**

Tai pushed Legionmon out of the way and slammed the body into the ground, with a loud crack to be heard. But Legionmon had already left that body. He smirked from a remote spot within the mass of controlled humans that retreated a bit and formed a circle around Tai and Mimi.

Tai fell to his knees. He picked her up and held her close, only to hear her heart beat rapidly as she gasped for air.

"_Happy now?" _Legionmon asked. _"You could have prevented this from happening. You could have protected her by accepting our offer." _Myotismon smirked. _"But it's not too late yet."_Lucemon's voice, sounding oddly caring. _"We can still save her, if you take us up on our offer and join us. Can you imagine? No more pain, no more suffering ever again._

Tai looked up from his fallen love and looked Lucemon straight in the eyes. **"Never." **That one word echoed through the empty streets.

"_Very well then." _Lucemon's voice sounded defeated.

Tai just kept staring at the host body, and elderly women as it turned its back and walked away from him.

He could feel a searing pain from his back. He coughed up blood, something he wasn't even sure he could and fell over onto Mimi, with various horns, claws and blades protruding from his back.

"_Leave them to rot." _Myotismon's voice said with a happy tone. _"They have no place in this world. Our world!!!"_

* * *

Damn, this was a bitch too write. Legionmon is a very difficult character. Characters. Eh thing? Whatever.

Also about his minions, a little explanation: they are like extensions of Legionmon's own consciousness. They still have a certain level of sentience and can think and act on their own, though Legionmon commands them all to do, say or forget what he wants.

Sorry a bit too tired to reply to reviews, maybe next time.


	22. It's happening all over again

Still don't own Digimon

* * *

Spirits of Ages

Chapter 21

Tai was still awake. Or something like it at least. He could feel everything, yet felt no pain from the gaping wounds in his back. He knew they were there but nothing else.

He slowly began to drift in and out of consciousness, one moment staring at Mimi's motionless body, the other seemingly sailing down the raging river in his mind and back to that gruesome visage.

In his daze he managed to push himself upright a bit, so he was kneeling before her body. She was so still, so…

'They killed her.' A voice in his head. 'Go after them! Rend them limp for limp!!' Duskmon. He was standing by the riverside again, reaching out his hand.

'Destroy them all.'

'She's still alive.' Another voice, one that immediately drew his attention. On the other side of the river stood Lowemon, complete with helmet. 'But just barely. If you handle quickly she'll live.'

'But they'll escape.' Duskmon spoke.

'The choice is yours.' Lowemon again.

The sides of the river moved closer, only to move apart again.

'**I chose…'**

Tai's battered and bleeding body stood up, drawing the attention of Legionmon, who turned around at the sounds of struggle.

'**I chose…'**

Legionmon's current host body moved closer again. Evil lord or not, even he was curious about what could drive a person like Tai to still move at a time like this.

'**I… Chose…'**

In Tai's mind the end of the river came closer, with his only way of survival was by taking either digimon's hand.

The river grew narrower…

"**Both!!" **He cried out as he grabbed both Lowemon and Duskmon's hands before he fell. He couldn't see it but he knew that both were smiling underneath their masks.

* * *

In the real world Tai began to glow, causing Legionmon to step back and all of his minions to stop their mars and turn around to face whatever was about to happen.

Legionmon had to shield their eyes, the light was too bright to handle. When it cleared up he didn't see anything there anymore. Tai and Mimi had seemingly disappeared.

"_What? Where did they go?"_

"**Over here!" **A massive fist slammed down on Legionmon, crushing him and creating a crater the size of a minivan in the middle of the street.

With their boss crushed into a bloody pulp the minions of Legionmon looked up to see a man the size of an certain transforming robot from beyond the stars. Nine meters tall, armor plated and looking rather disgruntled.

Tai was feeling rather pissed off. Somehow he had managed to bypass his ultimate level and immediately evolve to his mega, KingLowemon. Which probably meant that he would pay for it later by turning into a ball of fuzz.

But it also meant that a lot of these so called minions would be aching in the morning…

"**Okay… who's next?" **Tai asked, placing the injured body of Mimi on his shoulder before cracking his knuckles.

One of the controlled people actually pointed at the man standing next to him. Tai punched him into the ground, before punching the pointer into the ground as well.

He grinned but realized that time was running out. He took Mimi back of his shoulder, shot the people around him a hard look and began moving forward, the earth trembling a bit with every step.

A few of them tried to stop him but he send them flying in all directions with his sword. With the blunt side off course. They were still people. They could be saved, one way or the other. Perhaps even the same way as the digimon infected before them.

But those were worries for later. First Mimi had to survive.

Saving the world could wait. Saving his world couldn't.

* * *

They stared at the giant running down the street. As soon as he was out of sight, they gathered around the hole in the ground. One of them pulled their leader out of the cracked asphalt.

Legionmon dusted himself off and spat out a reasonably large piece of road along with a few teeth. _"Forgot he could do that…"_ Legionmon said in his Myotismon voice. _"I told you to remember that he's a digidestined. They tend to do stuff like that." _Lucemon said in 'I-told-you-so' voice.

"_Oh shut up." _Myotismon snapped back.

"_You shut up." _Lucemon snapped back. _"And what are we going to do now? We can't really start taking over the world with things as they are." _With the digidestineds of Sincerity and Courage still alive they didn't stand a chance, despite their boasting. They had caught them off guard. They wouldn't let that happen again.

"_We wait…" _Myotismon again. _"Not long but till we get another chance."_

With that said Legionmon left, leaving a rather large amount of people behind in the middle of the road, all of them wondering what had happened to them and how they ended up there. Until Legionmon ordered them to go on with their normal life till he called them again.

* * *

Meanwhile.

Tai had taken to running. He could see the hospital from where he was. Only a bit longer. The road behind him was littered with deep footsteps in the asphalt.

Arriving at the entrance. He noticed that he didn't exactly fit through the front door. He crouched down and crawled through it.

"Can I… help… you?" The same receptionist that let him in as an in-training sat at the desk. Her eyes almost falling out of her sockets. You don't see a huge man sitting in the hallway of you work every day.

"**Not me. Her!" **He laid Mimi down gently. The receptionist snapped out of her daze and picked up the phone. "Get me doctor Kido… what do you mean he's not in? Find him!!" She yelled into the phone before slamming down the horn. "Just a second sir, they'll be here in a moment." She smiled nervously.

* * *

"Um doctor Kido?" A nurse asked softly as she opened the door to his office. "What is it? I'm kind of busy here." He had almost beaten his game. Only two levels left!!!!

"Well eh, there's a wounded women in. The man with her asked for you." The nurse said nervously.

"Sorry, I don't do requests." Joe said rather uninterested. If he had to get up for every time someone asked for his 'expert' opinion he'd never finish playing.

"I know but this man happens to be nine meters tall." The nurse said, barely believing that herself.

"Hmmm I don't think that I know anyone with such a severe case of Gigantism…" He stopped talking.

He put down his game.

"Did you just say nine meters?" The nurse nodded. "He also brandishes a giant sword."

"I know enough." Joe said, standing up and heading out of his office.

* * *

Meanwhile, at Jaxa

"Hey boss, what you still doing here?" A random member of the staff asked Izzy.

"Same thing as every day. Trying to take over the wo- I mean, calculate a proper way for our team on Mars to return home." Izzy said, checking his calculations again.

He pressed a few more buttons, inputting the various data.

"Odd…" He said to himself. An envelope had appeared on the screen. "I didn't know this thing could receive email. Heck, I thought that this thing wasn't even connected to the internet…"

He clicked the email, only for it to open into a video screen.

"Izzy, do you hear me?" An old geezer on the screen said to him.

"Gennai? What can I do for you?" Izzy asked. "And why didn't you email me?"

"I couldn't!" The screen faded a few seconds before restoring again. "There's something going on here. Something is blocking the access between real and Digital world."

"When did this happen?" Izzy asked. He hadn't noticed anything about this. But then again, he hadn't been to the Digital world in a while.

"It started yesterday. Someone or something is deliberately shorting out communications between us."

"You don't think… you know who's behind this, do you?" Izzy asked. "Legionmon?"

"Nope, but keep an eye open for him as well, he's escaped some time ago." Gennai said.

"Ah okay… WHAT!!!!" Izzy gripped his monitor. "What do you mean he escaped! Why the hell didn't you tell us earlier!!" He shook the piece of hardware rather violently.

"Long story short, it's his fault." Gennai said, pointing of the screen. "Hey! I said that I'd willingly go to the real world to tell them about it."

"AncientSphinxmon, remember what happened last time you went to the real world?" Gennai said in a stern voice.

"Hey, I didn't do anything. Those Egyptian people build statues of me because they thought I was awesome, period."

"You see what I have to work with?" Gennai shook his head. "I thought of telling you earlier but he insisted that you could handle it by yourself."

"He's in the real world Izzy. But he might be the last of our problems." Gennai said, his voice turning more serious then Izzy had heard in a long time. "Something's threatening the world again and it's way worse than Legionmon. Whatever it is, it's within the mainframe of the Digital world. It's looking for something. I just can't figure what."

Izzy swallowed hard. Gennai had just told him that Legionmon was the lesser of two evils at the moment. That meant that things were very serious.

* * *

Meanwhile, on Mars.

"Izzy to Matt, Izzy to Matt, do you read me?" Izzy's voice was heard from a small box on the wall.

"Izzy this is Matt, reading you loud and clear."

"Matt, start up your engines, lose any unnecessary equipment and get your asses back home! We've got a major crisis here!"

"Izzy, what's going on there?" Matt asked. This was billion dollar equipment here, they couldn't just drop everything.

"Legionmon." That single world was enough. "Gabumon! Drop the samples, the meters and whatever else that's lose around here on the planet! Move it!"

"Even the beer?" Gabumon asked, eyes wide open. Matt hesitated for a while. "Even that."

"Matt?" The com again. "There's something even worse according to Gennai. We don't know what just yet. He's going to find out while we deal with Legionmon."

"Does Tai know?"

"I don't think so." Izzy said. "We'll worry about that though, you just get your ass back here. That's an order." The com shut down again.

Moments later Gabumon and Matt had thrown everything off the ship that wasn't vital to either survival or for their journey.

The ship blasted off, escaping the gravity field and leaving the red planet behind.

"You've got the feeling we forgot something?" Gabumon asked. "Something really important."

"Can't think of anything." Matt said honestly.

Meanwhile on that same planet they just left behind their third teammate Oscar Caine thought to himself. 'Well this sucks.' As the ship grew smaller and smaller.

* * *

Back on good old terra firma, things were going possibly worse than for our original friend on Mars.

"We managed to stabilize her." Joe said. " For now." He added. "It's not looking good."

"**Anything I can do?" **Tai asked. He had somehow managed to squeeze himself into the hallway of the hospital. He was sitting rather cramped up though.

Joe shook his head. "You can go and see her if you'd like. Just… don't break anything in your way there." He said before heading off. He'd need to tell the others about this.

Tai on the other hand could care less about the others right now. The one he loved was dying. He didn't need Joe to tell him that. He could feel it.

It was all his fault. He had failed to take care of Legionmon and now, twenty-five years later Mimi would pay for his mistakes.

If only… he could do something. It didn't matter what.

He reached for her through the doorway, his arm reaching just to her bed where she laid, sleeping, looking more peaceful then he'd ever seen her before.

"**Mimi, please forgive me." **He whispered as he took her small hand in his huge armored hand.

* * *

Meanwhile, down the hallway.

"Indeed, yeah." Joe muttered into a payphone. "Awful off course but we have no idea what happened. Tai just barged in here, nine meters tall and all that, with Mimi in hand."

Some mumbling from the other side of the line.

"Yeah I was thinking the same thing." Joe answered. "But he's

He was cut off by a roar.

"Oh dear, sorry Kari but I have to go, things are going to hell in this place." He hung up before Kari could protest and made his way back to where he left his oversized friend.

Smoke hung in the air as he got closer. "Oh dear." The fire alarm went off and people began moving down the hall to get out of harm's way.

"Aren't you coming doc?" One of the male nurses asked. "No can do kid, patients need me."

"Well that's a first." The nurse whispered under his breath as he helped an elderly man towards the exit.

* * *

Joe was a scientist. Well sort of. Medicine is a science of sorts.

So he had come to expect a lot of things.

But what he found wasn't really what he had ever seen coming. Fire was one of the things he expected, electrical fire mostly. They happened sometimes and had this thin blue smoke that was hanging around.

But what he found was no fire.

He arrived on the scene to see Tai, with his arm and head in Mimi's room. Smoke was coming off of him as he screamed in pain.

"This is just one of those days…" Joe muttered.

He watched in fascination as Tai shrank before his eyes. Not just shrink, as in dedigivolving but literally shrinking.

But what happened next was what amazed him even more. He heard gasps coming from within the room. Leaving Tai for what he was at the moment he carefully treaded over him. He couldn't see his face, the fact being that he was lying on it. But he still breathed. He also wiggled a bit when he accidently jabbed him with his cane.

"Are you alright?" Joe asked as he stepped into the room with Mimi sitting up. "Talk about recovery hey?" He commented as Mimi started pulling out various wires and tubes.

"Hey don't do that." Joe warned her. "I'm fine Joe, I feel better than ever." She said as she got out of bed. "Stay down, you ain't getting out of bed with that kind… of… wounds. Where the hell did it go?" The bandages had gotten loose with Mimi's moving about.

True to his word, the wound was gone! Mimi moved her hospital gown a bit, ripped of what was left of the bandages and revealed smooth skin with slight discoloration where she had been hit. Nothing would ever suggest that a few hours ago she had been skewered through and through.

"Where's Tai?" She asked. In her mind she had been fighting Legionmon two seconds ago but now she was in a bland room. 'Definitely the hospital.' She thought.

"Tai? Outside the room. Poor guy spontaneously self combusted before you woke up." Joe walked back out of the room. "He's here though. I think he needs that bed more than you do." He joked. With whatever strength Joe possessed he dragged Tai into the room and onto the hospital bed.

"Where are the nurses when you need one?" He complained.

"What happened to him?" Mimi asked. "He burst into flames, set off the fire alarms, shrank." Joe counted on his fingers. "That's about it."

"No, look at him! His face!"

"**Ehh, what- what's going on?" **Tai's voice was raspy. Both Mimi and Joe gasped.

"**What? What!?"**

* * *

Cliffhanger!

God I love those things.

What the hell happened to Tai? Who's this new evil? What will happen to poor unfortunate Oscar?

Like I know.

Later people, and for the fans of beyond humanity and an alternative course: I'm working on it. Give me another week or two and I'll have something… I hope.


	23. Here we go!

Spirits of Ages

Chapter 22

Immediately after uttering a few words Tai collapsed again, his vision fading into darkness once more. He'd gotten used to it by now.

"**Oh man." **Tai groaned mere moments later. Everything was spinning.** "My head."**

"Are you ok?" A man asked. Joe hovered over him with a worried look on his face.

"**What happened?"** Tai asked, attempting to sit up. "Stay down." Joe said.

Tai did as the doctor ordered.

"First off all." Joe started. "You're way overweight. I nearly sprained my back trying to get you onto the bed."

"**Seriously?"** Tai asked. "Yes, I had to lift you up on there myself. Everyone else left the building because you set off the fire alarm."

Luckily most of them had come back, seeing as there was no real threat to begin with.

"Secondly, look at this." Joe held out a small mirror.

"**What? Is there something wrong with my hair?"** Tai joked as he took the mirror. "Something like that." Joe said, taking a step back.

Moments later the mirror crashed into the wall behind Joe, shattering into a million pieces. "You do know that's seven years of bad luck."

"**What happened to my face!" **Tai demanded.

For some reason his face didn't look the way it should have.

It looked more mature, ridding his façade if the few boyish looks he had left.

"**Oh man, I look like dad!" **Tai held his hands to his face.

"Could be worse." Joe said. "You still look like you. I think this is how you would have looked if you hadn't become a digimon back then."

Tai looked at his hands. They were still covered in steel gloves, so he was still a digimon. Digimon aren't supposed to age. And definitely not as fast as this.

"Who knows, maybe you digivolved." Joe went on.

"**No, this is different. When I digivolve I become a lion or I grow to be eight meters tall."** Tai shook his head. **"This feels way different too."**

Tai held his hand to his head again, wondering why this had happened.

"**Where is she?" **Tai asked.

"Who?" Joe asked.

"**Mimi, who else." **Tai said angrily.

"Oh Mimi, she's not here anymore." Joe said calmly.

"**You mean…"**

"I send her downstairs, for some tests." Joe said. Tai just sighed in relief. "Tai, do you know what you did a few hours ago?"

"**Not really." **He remembered barging into the hospital quite clearly but after that… not much to be honest.

"Neither do I." Joe said. "Mimi was dying when she came in here." He said bluntly. "But somehow you managed to defy the laws of science, physics and who knows what else, again and saved her."

He waved his cane at Tai's face. "At the cost of your own lifespan I think. Time is catching up to you my friend."

Tai was baffled. Had he really done such a thing? Why couldn't he have done that before? Other friends he lost or nearly lost.

"It would appear that even without an evil overlord around you can make the impossible happen Tai."

"**Yeah, about that…" **Tai's face turned to a sneer. **"Guess which one of our favorite adversaries decided it would be a great time for his grand comeback?"**

"I don't like where this is going." Joe gripped his cane tightly. "Please say someone like Ogremon. Piedmon? Please, say Etemon! Please!"

Tai shook his head. **"Legionmon."**

Joe swallowed hard. "We have to get you out of here." He said. "Now. Can you walk?"

"**Legionmon won't try anything anytime soon." **Tai assured him.

"I'm not taking any chances." Joe said. "If Legionmon were to find out you were here and weakened he'd come for you."

Joe walked outside and grabbed the nearest wheelchair. "Get in, quickly now."

* * *

"What does he look like now?" Joe asked. "If he were still a giant dragon or blob we would have seen something on the news by now."

"**Human."** Tai said.

"I was afraid you'd say that." Joe said as he walked next to Tai. Tai had agreed to get in the chair but refused to be pushed by Joe, so he allowed him to roll it himself.

"**He's got some new tricks up his sleeve as well." **Tai said. **"Plus he has an entire army of controlled humans."**

"Wait, so we're going up against people?" Joe asked, astonished by that fact. "Ordinary non-digital people?"

"**You know how Geardevimon worked?" **Joe nodded. **"Like that but far worse."**

"So he can be everywhere?" Tai nodded. "Anyone?" Tai nodded again. **"Remember Sora's bodyguard? Tyrone or something like that. He disappeared a while ago."**

"This is bad news." Joe said. "He could be anyone, anywhere and the one we least expect…"

"**He also has four eyes, so he's a bit more recognizable." **"Tai said. It wasn't much help but it was better than nothing.

* * *

"_Why are we here again?" _A man with a big pair of sunglasses on said to himself. _"Because we still have the element of surprise." _The other voice said. _"Strike now while he's confused. His friend has already bled out by now and Tai won't see this coming."_

"_Why didn't we finish him off before he escaped? Oh right, because he pummeled us into the ground!" _The other voice said angrily. _"How will this be any different?"_

"_Watch and learn."_

* * *

"Finally!" Mimi complained. She jumped off the doctor's table. "I was getting tired of being prodded and jabbed. They took like a gallon of blood for tests!"

"Complain later." Joe said abruptly. "We need to get out of here."

He motioned at Tai, who was still sitting in his wheelchair, much to his dismay.

"Right." She said, grabbing the long grey coat one of the nurses had given her.

"**You okay?" **Tai asked. The last time he had seen her properly she had a huge gaping hole through her body.

"Okay, better then that! I feel fantastic!" Mimi exclaimed. "I've never felt better."

"**Good, I'm glad."**

"What did you do Tai?" Mimi asked. "You look so different."

"**Even after all this time I manage to surprise myself." **Tai laughed to himself as they arrived at the elevator.

"I love a man that's full of surprises." Mimi said. "Saving my life also helps." She added with a laugh.

"Can we save this stuff till we get somewhere safe? Like a bomb shelter or a vault." No prizes for who guessed this one.

"**It won't matter." **Tai said. **"If he wants to he'll find me. I won't hide." **Tai stated as the elevator arrived at the ground floor.

"**I'll stay out in the open, waiting for him."**

"Not like this you're not." Mimi said. "I may feel better but you can still use some rest."

"Stop." Joe said, making an abrupt end to their conversation.

"It's too quiet." He said. The hallway was filled with patients and medical staff, as usual. But there was no conversation. No arguments, no idle chitchat.

"Nurse, what's going on here?"Joe approached a women standing with her back to him. The moment he placed his hand on her shoulder she turned around, as did the patients.

"_Good evening doctor Kido, it's time for your annual checkup!" _She laughed as she slashed at Joe with a scalpel. She was wearing an almost comically large pair of sunglasses.

Joe struck her on the head with his cane in reflex, knocking her glasses off.

"I don't know what's going on here but-

Joe stopped talking as he saw her face.

Two pairs of eyes.

"Oh damn." He said as he stepped back to the elevator.

"_It's not nice to strike a lady." _The 'nurse' said.

"There's not much ladylike about you!" Mimi yelled at the women possessed.

She cocked her head in confusion. _"Didn't we kill you?"_

"_You said she'd be dead by now!" _The other voice blamed the first._ "He'd be easy pickings you said!"_

Seems you don't have to wait all that long." Mimi said as the nurse began arguing with itself.

Tai ignored their rambling and rolled forward. **"Didn't take you long to crawl out of that hole I made for you." **

"_Indeed… you pack quite a punch, you know that? Be more careful with it next time, or else someone might get hurt." _She laughed at her own joke, as did the rest of the hall, except our three heroes.

"This is creepy as hell." Joe said to Mimi. "It'll get worse." She assured him.

"_It'll get worse all right." _Legionmon said. _"Much worse, but don't worry. None of you will live to see it!"_

"_After all, you barely managed to escape unscathed with your full power."_ She grinned. _"Now that you're confined to a wheelchair things will go much smoother."_

"**Not likely."** Tai said defiantly, summoning his spear in one hand, his shield in the other.

In one smooth move the spear left his hand, flew through the sky and jabbed through the makeshift nurse's chest, pinning her against the wall behind her.

"_Oh no, you got me!" _She cried out in distress. _"Nah, just kidding." _Legionmon said as she pulled the spear out of her chest and threw it down.

_You're going to need a whole lot more then –_thunk

She dropped to the ground.

"**Got her!" **Tai pumped his fist in cheer. Who knew that throwing a shield would have such effects?

"_That was low." _Legionmon said. _"And that really hurt!"_ She said as she threw the shield back at Tai, who just caught it.

"_Enough games!"_ She cried out. _"Now it's time to die!"_

All other people, who had been quiet and motionless till now started moving. Slowly but surely they closed in on the trio.

"Any smart ideas?" Joe asked, his back against the elevator they had come in through. Going back up wasn't a good idea, not in this kind of situation.

"Not really." Mimi admitted.

"**I can throw my shield at her again? **Tai suggested.

"Yes try that, it worked fine last time."Joe said, rolling his eyes.

'Thunk' _Ouch! Oh you son of a –_

"I was being sarcastic!"

"_Now you've done it!" _Legionmon fumed._ "Now you've gone and made us mad!" _

Lightning arced over her fingertips. _"Now all of you just open your mouths and say 'Aaaaaaaaahhhhh' _

"Celestial arrow!"

"_What was that?" _Legionmon turned around in time to see glass shattering and a white hot arrow coming her way. Moments later it pinned her against the doors of the elevator.

"_Not this again!" _She grabbed the arrow but burnt her hand as she tried to pull it out.

"Looks like we arrived just in time." Kari said as she walked through what remained of the automatic doors.

"**Kari, what are you doing here?" **Tai asked.

"Saving your ass for a change." She said. "Keep them arrows coming!"

A new volley of arrows flew past Kari and imbedded themselves in Legionmon, who had barely managed to free herself from the first one.

"First of all Joe called me, telling me you had managed to get yourself into trouble again. Then Izzy called in full blown panic, muttering something about Legionmon being back and that being the least of our problems."

"W**h**_at?"_ Joe, Mimi, Tai and Legionmon uttered the same word at the same time.

"_How the hell can we be the least of your problems? We're enslaving the human race one by one!" _Legionmon's complaints only earned her a few new arrows to add to her impressive collection.

"Either way, I figured Legionmon had something to do with this." Kari continued, ignoring the rambling megalomaniac. "I followed the giant cracks in the road and here we are."

"Izzy wants to talk to us as soon as possible." She added.

"Right, let's not keep him waiting." Joe said. "Be sure to lock things up after you leave!" He said to Legionmon as her minions burned their own hands as well, trying to release their master.

"_I'll get you for this!" _Legionmon's voice bellowed through the entire hospital, alarming all to her presence.

* * *

"There's something different about you." Angewomon said. "Did you get a haircut?"

"**No." **Tai said as he lifted himself out of the wheelchair, glad to be rid of the contraption. **"I aged, somehow."**

"Digimon aren't supposed to age, are they?" Kari asked, taking in her brother's new features.

"There are exceptions." Angewomon said, indicating herself and the others.

"**I think we can all agree on the fact that I'm one hell of an exception." **Tai said.

"Tai saved me , somehow." Mimi said as they walked across the parking lot. "I nearly died but he brought me back."

"**That sounds like something I'd do." **Tai joked. **"If only I knew how I pull things like those off."**

"Who knows. Maybe the digital gods smile down upon you." Angewomon sighed as she dedigivolved into Gatomon. "Either that or you take after your mother and have nine lives." She joked.

* * *

And that's where we end for now.

Gods, I've been so busy the last year. Barely any time to write anything! And when I do have the time I can't think of something good! It's frustrating!

I hope this chapter's still good.


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